


Pull Yourself Together

by rafan4life



Category: British Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction, Richard Armitage - Fandom
Genre: Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Oral Sex, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-07 05:00:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5444219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rafan4life/pseuds/rafan4life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liz runs a clothing line and needs a new celebrity for new advertising strategy. Business partner Anna needs to let her hair down and have some fun. Liz decides to kill two birds with one stone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fashion Show

**Author's Note:**

> Work in progress. Not really sure how it's turned out. Always open for con-crit.
> 
> Thank you for reading.

Pull yourself together

“But I’m going to fall and bust my ass, I can’t go out there!” Anne Marie said to Liz. “What are you talking about? I’m not asking you to wear heels, you have to do this! You’re the reason we’re doing this. It was your idea for crying out loud!” Elizabeth exclaimed. _This bitch is pushing her luck with me right now!_ Liz thought to herself. “Wasn’t it your idea to make clothes for ALL people? Didn’t you stand in my office for 20 minutes extolling the virtues of expanding the line for this one season? OPEN the market, you said. DRESS everyone, you said. The designer for all people, YOU SAID!” Anne Marie stood there with her mouth open at her friend who was just about yelling at her. “Yes, I did do that and say all of that. I didn’t think that you’d make me walk the runway. I can ‘t compete with the gorgeous models out there, I’ll look like a mismatched dope.”  Anne Marie crossed her arms over her chest and looked distressed. “Come on Anne, I’d never let you look stupid. You know that. We only have 3 or 4 professional models, everyone else are regular people. This is the inspiration, regular people modeling the clothes; it’s going to be perfect!” She come over and put her hand around Anne’s shoulder. Anne let out a deep sigh, “I know Liz. Ok. Ok, let’s get this done and sell some clothes!” “That’s the spirit, I’ve got the perfect outfit for you and we’ve hired the best hair and makeup for this. It’s going to be fantastic! You’re my muse, darling. It’s going to be life changing!” Anne was petrified but knew that Liz was right.

Cut to the outside - front of show, hours later.

A black car pulls up in front of the show at the curb of Bryant Park. “This is going to be a nightmare, Rich.” Tom said, getting out of the car first, stopping for his friend to get out of the car. “It’s going to be fine Tom. We’ll have some champagne; I got the invitation from the designer myself. VIP treatment, it’ll be great. I’ll check out some stuff for next season. Meet some models, no pressure. Enjoy yourself. Try not to over think it, yeah?” Richard put his hand on his friend’s shoulder as they got closer to the entrance, “Have fun Tom. We’re here to have fun.” Tom turned to look at his friend, “You're right. Thanks for asking me to this Rich. I needed to get out of the house.” Richard takes out his invitation and shows the guy at the door, finding Richard’s name on the list he is holding and checks it off. They are led inside the tent and shown to their seats, in front. “Nice seats, huh?” Rich says to Tom. Tom rolls his eyes at him, about to say something when a server comes over with a tray and offers them a glass of champagne. Tom then looks up and down the runway and starts to lean back in his seat. “Ok Rich, I’ll try to relax. It’s just that I don’t want to see Linda or any of her friends. It’s been five months now since we’ve broken up. It’s too soon to run into her and I don’t want to explain what happened to any of her friends.” “She’s not even going to be here, mate. This show is using only “real people” as models, from what I’ve heard.” “Really? That’s something new.” Rich was happy that his friend was attempting to relax. _He’s been hiding in his apartment for way too long, needs to get out and look at something besides his four walls._ Rich leaned back into his seat and started to look forward to this.

 

 

 

Backstage

Everyone was running around and trying to get ready, “Ten Minutes everyone!” the stage director yelled out so everyone could hear. Anne Marie was sitting at her station, getting the final touches done. She already had her first outfit on and a huge cape over her neck area while her makeup was being finished. Her makeup artist, Kate was just dabbing some lip gloss on. “Ok Anne, you ready for this?” She turned Anne Marie around to face the mirror, and was shocked to silence. “Oh, you don’t like it?” Kate said sounding disappointed. “No, it’s beautiful. You’ve made me beautiful. It’s amazing!” Anne couldn’t believe it. “I need you to move in with me Kate; you need to do my makeup every friggin day!” She got up and hugged her. “Go kill it, kid. You look lovely.” Anne had to agree that she’d never felt more pretty than right at that moment. Anne went over to the line where all the models were lining up, Liz was walking up and down looking at everyone’s outfits and making last minute adjustments, adding or taking away accessories and fixing fly away hairs with spray. “Ok everyone, the runway is longer this time. Good news for you, more time to change looks when you come back in. Everyone has 3 outfits, does everyone know where they are supposed to go to change?” “Yes!” everyone answered in unison, except Anne. She looked up at Liz, terrified. Liz caught her friend’s face, pointed over to a rack of clothes and Anne saw her name on the front. She breathed deeply and nodded at Liz. “Ok everyone! Have a great show, everyone when showing a coat, once you get to the end corner, stop and open your coat. Show everybody the lining, show to the right and to the left and then leave it open and keep walking. Everyone without a coat, do a turn around and show the back of the outfit. Try to make eye contact and smile at the audience, we’re going for friendly here, let’s sell these damn clothes; you’re supposed to look comfortable in them. It’s a casual walk, but don’t run.  If you feel the need to dance to the music, go right ahead. But, either dance-walk or please only dance in place for under 10 seconds max and then keep going. Otherwise, you’ll cause a jam up of all the models behind you. Understood?” “Two Minutes!” yelled the stage manager, passing by. “Yes!” all the models yelled back to Liz.  “Ok, we’ll send out 10 models at a time, spacing you out from back here. Wait for me to cue you out. Everyone relax and let’s have a great time!” The models all started applauding as the music started up and the lights went down, the crowd outside was starting to applaud as well. Anne Marie took a deep breath. _I can do this, I can do this_. She made a sign of the cross and was ready.

 

Back out front.

The lights were going down and music was starting up, not too loud. “Here we go” said Tom to Richard. Richard was more excited than he realized, he really didn’t consider himself someone who went to fashion shows. But the designer had SPECIFICALLY sent him an invitation through his agent, asking if he would come to check out the show. She was looking to launch a new campaign and was hoping that he would be interested in possibly modeling some of the ski wear. Looking the designer up on line, he was pleasantly surprised at her stuff. She designed for both men and women, something usually kept separate at shows. She also designed active wear and most important to him, she designed ski clothes. Richard was an avid skier and definitely needed some new stuff for next year. He was excited at the prospect of getting some new stuff. They started to come out and was giving each outfit the once over. There were 10 models, 5 men and 5 women. The clothes were business casual, something you would wear to the office. He thought they looked well-made and of quality. The last person out was a women and Rich had started to say something to Tom when he froze to look at her. Seeing his friend freeze up, Tom looked at his face and then turned back to the runway to see what Richard was staring at. _She’s quite lovely._ Tom thought to himself, _definitely a non-professional. She’s much too short to be a model._ He looked back up at Richard, waved his hand in front of his face. “Earth to Rich, are you there?” Rich took his arm and moved it down so he could see her better and his friend Tom laughed at him. Tom turned back to the woman coming up last on the runway.

 

 _Oh my god, I’m going to trip and fall and bust my ass here._ Anne thought to herself, starting to panic. She took a couple of more steps and started to feel better about it. _Ok, fine. This isn’t so bad; I don’t feel like I want to throw up anymore._ She straightened up a bit and tried to relax her breathing.   _Remember to make eye contact and smile. I’m comfortable. These clothes are comfortable. Buy them!_ She made eye contact with a couple of people along the runway and smiled. _This isn’t as bad as I thought! Ok, I can relax, enjoy the moment._ She felt herself pinking up a bit as she got towards the turn, a little embarrassed at the idea of stopping and modeling the outfit. It was a lovely outfit. Pretty blouse and knee length skirt. _I guess I can put my hands in my pockets and do a twirl for them. Hopefully, I won’t fall off and embarrass Liz._ She got to right before the end to look across to see the turn when she spotted him.  He was sitting with his legs open, leaning back with his arms crossed.  He was on the opposite side of the turn and, he sat straight up when she made direct eye contact with him. _Holy shit! Is that who the fuck I think it is? What in the everloving fuck is going on? Is that Richard Armitage?_ Anne looked back at where she came out of but didn’t see Liz there.   _Is that Tom Hiddleston sitting next to him?_ There had been celebrities at the shows before, she had even met them and was able to not fan-girl too much at them. But she didn’t know that Richard Armitage and Tom Hiddleston were even coming, let alone that they were even invited to the show.She came to the turn and stopped, still looking over at Tom and Richard. Tom looked from Richard to Anna and back again, crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. “This is getting very interesting now.” Richard was still looking at Anne, unable to stop staring. She kept her eyes on Richard, put her hands on her hips but was frozen and couldn’t even think of what to do. At least 10 seconds passed by, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember what she was supposed to be doing. She totally forgot about the press photographers who were invited to this event. All she could hear was the music blaring and the clicking of shutters. “Pssst! Anne, look forward please.” She finally heard the photographer; whom she herself had hired for this event, to take pictures for the company’s website. He whispered loudly to her, she snapped her head forward to look for him, faced flushed and highly embarrassed. A lull in the music allowed the sound of laughter to reach her ears. She blushed even harder and even her ears turned bright red. She realized that she was making a total ass of herself and had to recover.  She successfully completed her twirl without falling as she was walking over to the other side of the bend where Richard and Tom were sitting. She refused to look at him or Tom, just looking everywhere else and made the turn by them without falling.  She was on the return row, and could see the 2nd batch of models coming out. Richard was shell-shocked, and he leaned back in his seat. _What just happened? Who was that woman?_ He was watching her walk away, she had made contact with several people along the runway but never looked back towards him. He watched and made sure that she was backstage before he took his gaze off her. “Richard, are you ok?” Tom asked his friend, who was visibly shaken. “She’s very lovely, don’t you think?” Richard asked, saying it to no one in particular. “Yes Richard, she’s very lovely.” Tom put his hand on Richard’s shoulder and it seemed to snap Richard out of the trance he was in. “Holy Shit Rich, what was that?” “What was what?” “Rich, you were in a trance looking at that woman. The paparazzi got loads of pictures of you and her staring at each other. It’s going to be a shit show.” “Whatever, it’s fine. Don’t care.” Richard looked to his left to see the row of photographers sitting in the front row at the turn, a couple of them were still snapping a couple of pictures of him and he looked down to the floor without being obvious. “They won’t even be able to tell who she was looking at, Tom. It’s not a problem.” Tom shrugged, laughing “Yeah, you have bigger fish to fry than that my friend.” “What are you talking about Tom?” “Like how you’re going to get backstage to speak with her.”

 

Anne got thru the door and leaned on it, breathing heavy and looking around for Liz. She saw her dresser, Melanie waving at her and made her way over to her and started unbuttoning her blouse to hand over to her. She stepped behind a make shift curtain to hide herself while changing. “How is it out there, Anne?” “It’s fine, I’m fine. What am I wearing next?” Anne peeked out and asked her. Melanie looked at her face and noticed that Anne looked like she was starting to panic. “We have a ski outfit for you, take a look.” Anne looked at the outfit and a little self-conscious about putting it on but knew that she didn’t have a choice anymore, went back behind the curtain and changed into it quickly. She came out to let Melanie put on the final touches to her outfit. “Are you ok, Anne? You look a little pale.” “I’m fine.” Melanie gave her a look and Anne said, “Ok, I’m not fine. Who in God’s green earth invited Richard Armitage and Tom Hiddleston to this show and not tell me?” She could feel herself getting more and more panicked. “You’re going to have to talk with Liz about that. I guess everyone just naturally assumed that you had been involved in the decision making, Anne. You always are” “Apparently, not this time. Liz knows for a fact that I would have never approved of that invite.” Melanie finished Anne’s outfit, double checked her makeup and started leading her back over to the entrance of the stage for the next pass. Liz was still there, putting the finishing touches on a couple of the models when she saw Anne line up. She sent out three of the models and everyone moved up closer to the entrance to the runway. Liz came down the line, seeing the look that her friend Anne was giving her and addressed the face she was making right away, “He’s a big name, Anne. I want a big name for the next campaign. No matter how you feel about him, he’s good for business. Besides, you know that you are DYING to meet him.” Liz turned back to the entrance and sent out two more models. Anne was right near the door this time and looked at her friend. “I’m only doing this for you, Liz.” Unable to keep a straight face anymore, her grin started creeping up her face, making Liz start to smile as well. “Yeah, right bitch! You’re frigging loving this and you know it!” She put her hand on Anne’s shoulder and sent her out. Anne could hear her instructions behind her back, “Open the coat at the turn, don’t forget.” She concentrated on the music and tried to relax. She worked her way down, not looking at Richard and Tom directly.

 

 

Richard had been watching the models come out and was keeping an eye out for Anne. Tom said, “There she is, you can relax now.” “Shhhh, Tom. Don’t be so obvious about it.” Richard saw her a second before Tom spoke and was watching her work her way down the runway. She wasn’t looking directly at them, Richard noted. _I like her outfit, she looks nice. I wonder if she can ski._ Anne got to the turn again and this time, didn’t panic at all. She opened her jacket, shutters from the paparazzi clicking like mad. She turned to the right and when she turned to the left, made brief eye contact with Richard. His eyebrow shot up at her, and she smiled at him. He smiled back at her, crossing his arms and looking up at her with a smirk. She moved closer to them, but didn’t look at him again. She made the turn and started walking up the aisle, Richard still keeping his eyes on her. She got about halfway up the runway, but turned back to look at him. His smile broadened a little, as did hers. She turned back and made it off stage again. “If you don’t get backstage and get her phone number….I will.” Tom told Richard as he was paying attention to his friend again, now that Anne was off stage. “Just let me make sure that she’s interested in even speaking with me; and then if she is, then we’ll go from there. Then, I will find out who she is and make sure we meet again.”

 

Anne was backstage again running over to Melanie, starting to take off her outfit. “Well, someone is getting better at this.” Melanie said with a grin on her face. “Yup, I’m ok. I thought I would panic getting closer to Richard, but it’s ok. He’s so adorable. Geez, he’s such a cutie pie.” Melanie took a dress off the rack and handed it to her. She stepped behind the curtain and quickly changed. Anne stepped back out and Melanie re-applied her lip gloss and made sure her eyeliner wasn’t smudged. “Last pass Anne. Make it count.” She came back over to the entrance and while waiting, Liz came over. “You do your thing, walk around and once you come back in, cut across to me.  I want you to walk back out with me. Ok?” “Come on Liz, do I have to?” “Yes Anne, you **_have_** to. It’s not like you haven’t done it before with me.” “Fine, I guess one more pass wouldn’t hurt. Besides, you **_NEED_** to see who else is out there.” “Who is out there?” Anne made a zipping motion over her mouth. “Anne, who else is out there?” “A certain British gentlemen who would be an excellent addition to our campaign. We’ll have a massive amount of hits on our website the first day it’s announced. That’s if he’ll even agree to it.” Liz took a hold of Anne’s shoulders, “Who is it, ya crazy bitch?” Liz said laughing while giving her friend a shake. “Hiddles, darling. Hiddles.” Liz could actually feel the color drain from her face. Anne turned around and sent out the next two models as Liz was obviously having a moment. “Oh. My. Vah-hina.” Liz looked back at Anne. “Your shitting me, right?” “Nope, let me go do my last pass and we’ll go back out and face everyone.”

 

Anne went back out onto the runway and started her last pass. She watched Richard as she came down the aisle and he was smiling at her. She looked to his right and smiled at Tom as well. Tom gave her his patented mega-watt smile and she looked back to Richard. She came to the beginning of the turn and stopped on the far side to show her outfit to the photographers over there, then moved to her left towards Richard and Tom. She stopped in front of them and did her turn with her outfit. She kept making eye contact with him, smiling. He was staring back at her, his face turning a little pink from embarrassment. She could hear the shutters clicking like crazy, he smiled up at her and she laughed. She started to work her way back up the far side of the runway, but every 10 feet or so, she would turn around and take a few steps backwards and keep her eyes on him. As she disappeared backstage, everyone stood up to applaud the show, “I think it’s very clear that she wants you to find her, Rich.” “You saw that, huh?” “Yes, I think everyone in the room saw that and by tomorrow it’ll be all over the rag papers.” “Don’t forget Tom; that you were right next to me, they might think you were trying to pick her up.” They were still applauding when all of the models started coming out in their final looks. At the very end of the line were Liz and Anna bringing up the rear. Anna was pulling Liz along and applauding along with everyone else, including the models walking the stage. Anna and Liz were talking to each other through gritted teeth while smiling so their lips weren’t moving. “Where’s Hiddles Anna?” “Just after the turn to go back, on Richard’s right.” They stopped before the turn and Liz waved at the crowd and took a bow; Anna laughing at her friend, knowing exactly what she was doing. The stopped in the middle of the turn and Liz bowed again. They got over to where Tom and Richard were and Liz stopped one more time to bow. She made eye contact with Richard and gestured to the VIP area and he acknowledged her with understanding. She looked at Tom who was grinning at her, applauding and making wolf whistles the whole time she was walking the runway. She winked at Tom, put her arm around Anna’s shoulders and started walking to the backstage area. Anna couldn’t help herself and kept looking back at Richard, he motioned towards the VIP area and she nodded. Liz wouldn’t turn back around at all. Once they got back stage, Liz started fanning herself with her hand. “Whew, he’s even better looking in person! Was he watching me walk off?” “Yes, Liz. He was fixated on your ass. I saw what you did there; you purposely made sure that you were going to bow in front of them, didn’t you?” “Of course, I had to make sure that Hiddles saw me and fell madly in love with me.” “I am pretty sure that he’s interested in you.”

 

Richard and Tom headed over to the VIP area towards the backstage of the show, along with some other VIP guests. They could see the models in the dressing area, but they were all huddled around Liz and Anna. He couldn’t make out what was being said. “Do you see them over there?” Tom asked him. “I think I see them, they’re in the middle of all that chaos. Let’s take a seat on this couch over here and let them find us. I’m pretty sure that Liz wants to come over and talk about the campaign.” “What campaign?” Tom asked. “That’s why I’m here actually, she sent an email to my agent about some modeling. I said that I would come to the show after I looked on line and saw her stuff.” A waiter came over with champagne and Richard and Tom took another glass. “Looks like this day is shaping up rather nicely.”, Said Tom looking over at the group of models, crew and everyone over there,  just being able to hear Liz speaking to them over the music.

 

“Ok, everyone. That was excellent work for you first timers, only Anna messed up but that’s fine.” Said Liz. Everyone started to laugh and looked over at Anna, who was smiling and not minding at all. “Depending how well received the line is, we’ll contact you about any print ads that we might be interested in pursuing. Ok? Get a glass of champagne and let’s toast” There was a table laid out for them, everyone took a glass and raised it.  “To everyone who helped me with this line, I love you. For everyone here, hair, makeup artists, lighting, carpenters – everyone who helped make this show a success, I appreciate you very much and love you. And to Anna, who with her awesome runway skills, has just about guaranteed us the most free press we’ve ever gotten, I love you, I appreciate you and I adore you.” They all yelled out, “Anna!” and took sips of their drinks. Anna looked over to Richard and Tom who were listening in, Richard raised his glass to her and she held it up to him from across the room, and they took a sip. Liz waited for Anna to respond, “To our Liz, the wind beneath my wings. Another beautiful line and to all of you, thank you very much for all of your hard work. Now, let’s enjoy the party!” She raised her glass and everyone shouted, “Liz!” They took another sip of their drinks. Anna went over to her booth and changed back into her regular clothes, looked in her mirror to make sure her hair and makeup was still ok, and went to find Liz. She was on the side of everything, doing a quick interview with Woman’s Weekly and Anna went to stand next to her. “Here she is now, our favorite new model.” Liz told the reporter, Anna took Liz’s place and Liz went over to another reporter to give them a quick minute. “So Anna, what exactly caught your attention at the end of the runway? There’s lots of speculation regarding a certain British actor who was seated there.” “I was so distracted by a light fixture that was turned the wrong way, it was blinding. I was so worried about someone falling into the pit. I had to be sure of where it was. Of course, so I could go backstage and alert the lighting team know of the problem. Trying to do too many things at once, I’m afraid. ” She lied bold faced to the reporter, never even thinking of mentioning Richard or Tom at all.

 

Liz and Anna finished up their interviews, spoke to a couple of store buyers and came over to the VIP section. Anna went over to speak to some of the VIP’s, while Liz made a bee line for Tom and Richard. “Very nice to meet you Richard, I’m so glad that you were able to come to our little show.” She said to Richard and she shook his hand. “Thank you for inviting me Liz, I really do like your line. I’m not sure if you have met my guest before, this is Tom Hiddleston.” Tom took Liz’s hand and brought it up to his lips, “Charmed.” He said never breaking his gaze with hers. “Very nice to meet you, Tom. We’re honored with your presence.” “On the contrary, thank goodness Richard insisted that I accompany him here today.  Otherwise, how else would we have ever met?” He gave her the killer mega-watt smile and she was immediately under his spell. He let go of her hand, and she blushed. She turned her head towards Richard but her eyes were still focused on Tom. “Anne should be right over Richard, she’s just got to speak with some board members but she’ll be finished quick.” Richard laughed at how Liz was speaking to him, but not looking at him. “Oh, she works for your company?” Liz momentarily looked at him, “Yes, she takes care of the financial side of things, and I handle the design side. She’s the one who suggested to me about using “real” people as models. She wants to expand the line to be able to be accessed by everyone. She’s also heads up the planning of the advertising, I mostly handle the concept part of it with help from her. So she’ll be handling your shoot if you decide to work with us.” Before turning her attention back to Tom. “Would you like another drink?” She asked Tom. “Please allow me, I’ll get you one Liz.” Tom gestured to a server, who replaced both of their glasses.

 

Anne could see over the person’s shoulder that she was talking to that Richard was watching her quite intently, thankfully her conversation had dwindled down and she was able to take her leave of them.  She took a deep breath and took a sip of her champagne and walked over to them. She came up beside Liz and greeted them, “Hello everyone, I hoped that you liked our show.” Liz turned away from Tom. “Anne Birch, this is Richard Armitage, whom I believe you met on the runway today?” Both Anne and Richard turned bright pink at the description of their “meeting”, Richard reached out and took her hand to kiss it. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you Mr. Armitage.” “Please call me Richard.”, all the while keeping his gaze locked on her eyes. “And this charming bastard is Tom Hiddleston.” Liz said.  Anne laughed and looked over at Tom. She reached out and he took her hand and instead of raising it to kiss, looked over at Richard and then promptly shook it and said, “It’s lovely to meet you Anne, you did rather well today. Have you been modeling long?” “Oh no, I’m not a model. I sometimes walk the last lap with Liz at the end because she likes the company. Today was my first time.” Tom let go of her hand and he could swear that Richard looked relieved. Tom reached out and placed his hand on the small of Liz’s back, “Would you like to go get something to eat so these two can talk shop then?” He put out his arm and she took it and they walked off together. They watched their friends walk off. Richard looked back to Anne. “I’m so glad that I was invited here today. After receiving the inquiry, I looked online at some of the previous lines and was quite pleased with them.” “To be honest Richard, the first time that I even heard about you coming to work with us was tonight during the show. Liz kinda hid the information from me, knowing my first response would be to reject it.” “Really?” he sounded disappointed. “Oh no! You misunderstand me. I’m a fan of yours and I initially would have rejected it, for fear of making myself look like an ass in front of you. But since I’ve made an ass of myself in front of you already, there’s no reason why I should be nervous around you anymore.” He moved closer to her and took her hand in his, “I’m really glad that I came today, Anne. It was very nice to have met you. I was hoping that we could get to know each other beside through a business venture.” “I’d like that very much, Richard.” She moved over to a couch and Richard followed her and sat down next to her.  

 

Liz was over with Tom on the other side of the room, looking over the table laden with food. Tom had a plate in his hand with a couple of things on it. “Would you like something to eat, Liz?” “I’m ok. I ate earlier today, built up my stamina like a runner so I could last the day.” He came to stand right in front of her, invading her personal space. “Stamina like a runner, you say?” Making a face at her that left no room for mistaking how he meant it. “Marathon runner, Tom.” She said as she took a sip of her drink and made almost the exact same face back to him. “I like you Liz, I believe that we’re going to get along just fine.”  She took a canapé off of his plate and ate it, “I’m looking forward to it.” He asked her about her start in fashion and she asked him about his beginnings in the theatre. “I’m doing a play in London’s West End next month. Maybe you should come see me. Will you be attending fashion week in London? Please say that you’ll come.” Giving her the puppy eyes. “Well, normally I don’t go visit other shows. But possibly I could be enticed to come abroad, if it were going to be worth my while.” “Oh I promise, Liz. I’ll definitely make it worth your while.” Tom set his plate down, reached in his pocket and took a card out of his wallet and gave it to her. “Please feel free to contact me soon and we’ll get you some tickets.” She looked down at the card, “This is your personal email Tom?” “Of course darling, how else are you going to get a hold of me?” He said smiling at her. He was still holding her hand, even though he had given her the card already. She looked up him and said, “It was completely wonderful to meet you, but I’m still working and have several loose ends to tie up before the afternoon comes to a close.” He lifted her hand and kissed it again. “Until London then, beautiful.” “Until London, Tom.” She walked back over to where all of the crew had almost finished up packing up all of the clothes.

 

Anne looked over and saw that Liz was across the room and saw that Tom had settled himself near them on a couch as to not interrupt them. She still had things to do and sitting here flirting shamelessly with Richard Armitage had to; unfortunately, end. “Well, I’ve got to go.” She said as she started to stand up, Richard stood up with her. “Thank you for sitting and talking with me, Anne. You’re lovely.” “You are very welcome Richard, it was really great to have met you. You have all of the information to get in touch with our offices, yes?” “Yes I do.” “Great. You can get a hold of me there and we’ll talk soon about the campaign.” “That would be a great idea. You’ll let me take you to lunch, to talk it over?” He raised his eyebrow up to her, took her hand and kissed it once more. “That would be very nice. I’m looking forward to it. Talk to you soon, Richard.” “I will be in contact, _very_ soon Anne.” She walked away and back over to Liz.

 

Richard was still watching Anne walk away when Tom came up next to him and patted his shoulder. “Are you going to do the campaign, Richard?” “Absolutely, but I haven’t said yes yet. I’m going to make excuses to spend time with her before I commit to it.” Anne turned around when she got to the other side of the room and smiled at him; he gave her a little wave. She turned and walked out of the room with Liz, disappearing. He looked over at Tom, “You looked pretty besotted yourself. I didn’t get to speak with Liz for very long before you swept her away. She seemed very nice. How’d that go?” “Umm, I might have invited her over to London to see me perform next month.” “Really Tom? Wow, you do like her.” “She’s pretty terrific. Funny, smart, creative and fucking beautiful.”

 

 

Liz and Anne made sure all the clothes were packed, and were being returned to their studio space. They got their personal stuff and left the venue through the back and found a cab. “Are you going back to the office or home?” “I think home, it’s been a long day.” Liz directed the cab to her place. “So Liz, how did your talk with Tom go?” “He’s invited me to come watch him in a play.” Anna raised her eyebrow, “Really? Very interesting. He’s doing a play here?” “Nope, London.” “That’s awesome!” “I get the feeling that you’ve made a love connection yourself Chuck” “Oh my god! Did you see? Did it look like he was interested in me? I tried to play it cool, but I think I came off as a super nerd!” “Oh he’s interested alright. Come to my office tomorrow morning and we’ll tediously overanalyze it together.” They pulled up to Liz’s building and she got out. Anna directed the driver to her place. A few minutes later, she got to her destination and went into her building. After a shower, she ordered some dinner and turned on the television. A while later, the adrenaline from the events of the day were quickly wearing off. She turned everything off and retired for the evening.


	2. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna and Richard are getting to know each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Richard Armitage (Please Santa! I've been good all year!) As always, con-crit is welcome.

The next morning Anna went into work and dropped her stuff off in her office and went straight over to Liz’s office. Liz was reading an on line article as she sat in one of the chairs. Anna went to greet her, Liz held a finger up, “As far as a collection goes, Liz Sheridan’s new line was a hit. Using everyday people was inspired, sure to have the masses clamoring to get any of the expertly crafted clothes. Those folks know what they’re doing over there at Liz Sheridan.” Anna stood up and took a bow. Liz held up her finger again, “The show itself was a huge success, baring one small incident. It seems there was one model who forgot what “walk the runway” means. Trying to find out later, we were informed that there was a lighting problem and the model was concerned for everyone’s safety. However, we find it very much a coincidence that she was “distracted” by the lighting fixture, which just so happened to be right in front of two certain British actors who were attending the show. Hmmm, we think a new romance could be brewing. We’ll let you know as soon as we do. ” Anna shrugged and sat back down, “Ehh, they’ll see Richard in the new ad campaign, and that story will be over quick.” Liz was opening some files on her computer. “We still have to consider one or two more other people for the campaign, of course Richard being our first choice for skiwear.” Anna stuck her tongue out at her friend, Liz laughed at her. “That man could wear anything and make it look good. Maybe we should consider him for men’s suits as well”, Anna suggested. “Hmmm, trying to get more work for your boyfriend?” Liz raised her eyebrow and Anna’s face went red, “Cut it out, Liz.” They both started laughing and talking about some of the design concepts for the ads that Liz had opened up on her computer, narrowing it down to 3 or 4 setups. A young woman came into Liz’s office and Anna stood up, “Yes Suzanna. Good morning, what’s going on?” “Miss Birch? You have 4 messages, one from The Marmaxx Group, one from Macy’s, one from Max Greene and one from TMZ.” “I better get to work Liz, I have apparently 3 calls to make.” “You’re not going to call…..The Marmaxx Group?” teasing her friend. “Uhh, no. Not calling TMZ back.” Anna said sounding serious. “Anna, I’m joking. You should call them back though, better they get a quote from you other than just putting up whatever they want.” Anna called over her back, “I’ll think about it.” Following Suzanna back over to her office, Suzanna said, “Also, there’s a delivery for you.” They turned the corner into her office, and Anna saw the bouquet of flowers on her desk. They were a beautiful mixture of wildflowers and took her breath away. She went over to read the card attached. “Promise me you’ll never forget me because if I thought you would, I’d never leave.” Were the only words on the card. She went on line and googled it, finding out that it’s a quote from Winnie the Pooh. She laughed, and sat down at her desk trying to get some work done. After she had returned 3 of her 4 calls, (no TMZ) when her phone buzzed. “Miss Birch, there’s a Mr. Armitage on the phone for you.” Anne hesitated, “Thank you Suzi. Tell him that I’ll pick up in a moment.” Anna called Liz’s office, “Yeah, Anna.” “Liz, Richard is on the phone.” “Whoa, nelly. He don’t waste any time, does he?” “Should I pick up?” “Are you insane, Anna!?  Of course, you should pick up!! Why are we even having this discussion, you know what?” Anna heard the audible click on Liz’s end knowing that she just ended the call. Anna laughed and picked up Richard’s line. “Hello?” “Hi Anna, it’s Richard. I hope that I’m not disturbing you.” “No, you’re ok. I’m just a little busy today, but the day after a show is always a busy one.” “Does that mean that you aren’t free for lunch today?” “Truthfully Richard, I really should take care of some stuff….” “Aww, that’s no fun. It’s going to be beautiful today. You should come have some fun with me.” _That voice of his is ridiculous_ , and she had to admit, was certainly making her think twice about staying at work.  “Thank you for my flowers Richard, by the way. They’re beautiful.” “You got them, then?” “Yes, thank you so much. I would love to go to lunch with you” “I’ll come by at 1pm to get you. Is that time ok for you?” “That’s perfect, I’ll see you then.” “Bye Anna, I’ll see you soon.” She called Liz right away, “I’m going out for lunch, Liz so don’t wait for me to order something for yourself.” “Hmmm, I wonder with whom?” “Bye Liz, see you around 2ish.” “Is the bastard at least going to come up to the office? There are rules he has to abide by, if he’s a gentleman.” “Yes, he’s coming up stairs.”

Around 12:45, security called up to Anna’s desk to inform her of Richard’s arrival. She told them what floor to send him to and waited for reception to call her. She stood up and walked into her bathroom to check her lipstick and fluff her hair. She picked up her jacket and purse and was about to walk out when Richard came around the corner of her office, “There you are lovely.” She blushed and he came over and took her hand, kissed the back of it and then held onto it. “Richard, how did you find my office?” “Liz is out at the reception area and gave me directions.” “Did she now?” Richard took her jacket from her and held it out so Anna could put it on. “Shall we go?” He grabbed her hand and led the way out. There were many interested parties who just happened to be milling about the reception as they were leaving. “Thanks for the directions, Liz. I’ve found my lovely.” Richard told her as he stopped by the reception area. Anna couldn’t believe the look on the receptionist’s face **and** the girls who just happened to be standing by the reception area **and** the women from the other floors that just **happened** to be on her floor at the reception area, all of them swooning after Richard with little hearts practically coming out of their eyes. He didn’t even think it was strange, “Hi everyone.” He said waiving at them. “Hi Richard,” they all said almost in unison. “No problem Richard, just have her back at a decent hour, Ok?” Liz said with a serious tone. Anna gave Liz a look, Liz smiled at her and then over at Richard. “Be good you two kids, now off with you both.”

They went to Tavern on the Green , Anna was very nervous but managed to make it through lunch without making a complete ass of herself. They walked in the park for a bit, holding hands and talking about everything and nothing. “I’m so sorry to have to end this, but I really should get back to the office.” He held up her hand and kissed the back again. “I’m sorry you have to go, lovely. Maybe we can do this again sometime?” “I would like that very much, Richard.” They came out of Central Park and Richard hailed a cab and took her back to her office. He got out with her and walked her back to her office. He was standing in her doorway, and she stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on his cheek. “Thank you for a lovely afternoon, Richard.” He smiled at her, “Talk to you soon Anna.” He turned and left the office. Her assistant, Suzanna paged her. “Liz is in conference room B and needs you.” Anna got up and walked over to the room and walked in, Liz was standing at the other end with drawings littering half of the table. “Ok, here’s the final three ideas that we were talking about for the new ads. I’m thinking that this is the one that you are going to do.”, gesturing towards the pictures on the left side. Anna came over and saw the concept artwork for a ski vacation. There were about 15 shots in all, of a man on the slopes, on a ski lift, by a cabin. Different outfits marked for each picture, Anna thought they had done very well with the concept. “What do you mean, I’m going to do?” “You are going to handle this shoot for me, I’m certainly not going to freeze my ass off.” “What on earth are you talking about?!?” “You, Richard in the cold weather? Little mini-vacation get to know each other. I, however hate the cold weather and will definitely NOT be on location with you. The photographer will send me the shots each day and I’ll have it all picked out done by the time you get back.” “Exactly when are we doing this?” “Well, we want the ads to start fairly soon. You’d better get on this right away.” “He hasn’t even said yes.” “Umm, I have the strangest feeling that he’ll agree to just about anything you ask.”

The next two days went by in a flash, many meeting with store buyers who were very interested in the new line, making preparations for the photo shoots. Anna got another bouquet of flowers that morning, even more beautiful than the last. The card this time read, “All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.” Suzanne paged her, “Mr. Armitage on the line, Anna.” “Thank you Suzanna.” “Hello?” “Hi lovely, it’s Richard.” “Hi Richard, how are you?” “Very well Anna. I was hoping that we could go out for dinner tonight?” “That would be great, where should I meet you?” “I’ll come and get you at the office, is that ok?” They agreed to a time and Anna went into Liz’s office, “I’m going out to dinner with him tonight.” “Wow, he’s tenacious. I give the man points, he’s certainly eager. I hear that you got another flower delivery today.” “Washwomen, all of you! Doesn’t anyone have work around here to do?” Anna said out loud near the doorway of Liz’s office and waited, hearing the snickering that was coming from behind some of the cubicles, she laughed. “Make sure that you bring up the photoshoot, we’ve got to get that going right away.”

Richard picked her up for dinner at the office again but luckily, most of the people who were there the first time had gone home already. He had texted her about 10 minutes before he arrived, so she was walking towards reception as he got off the elevator. He had one single rose for her, she blushed and thanked him for her flowers from this morning. He kissed her hand and he led her into the elevator. When they came out of the building, there was a town car waiting at the curb . “Where are we going?” she asked him. “It’s a surprise.” They drove to Rockefeller Center and only then had she figured out that they were going to the Rainbow Room. He helped her out of the car and kept her hand in his. She was nervous about bringing up the campaign during dinner, she didn’t want him to think the wrong thing about her agreeing to going out with him. After they chosen their dinner, he reached across to hold her hand. She decided to just get it over with and brought it up. “Do you have anything going on for the next week or two?” “No, what’s up?” he laced his fingers with hers. “Well, you know that I want to use you.” He made a cheeky grin at her, flustering her. “You want to use me?” She made a face at him, “Cut it out Richard. You know what I mean, for the ad campaign!” “Go ahead, Anna. Tell me what you have in mind.” Still with the same look on his face.  She continued, “We haven't exactly figured out the total look yet, and I haven't decided how exactly I want you....I mean how you'd feel... I mean how I'm going to position you....Oh you know what I mean!!" He laughed at her seeing her fluster, watching her cheeks go from pink to bright red. “Of course, I know what you mean.” He picked her hand up to kiss it again, “Yes, I’m definitely going to do the campaign. When are we going and where?” “That’s it?” she asked looking confused. “That’s it, Anna. I’m all yours.” They enjoyed the rest of the dinner, Anna giving him some details about going to Vermont to a ski resort for the shoot. Afterwards, they went to a rooftop bar. Anna was feeling comfortable enough to move close to him on one of the couches. He put his arm around her and asked her if she was warm enough. She looked up into his face, watching his pupils dilate and turn almost black. She whispered, “I’m fine.” He stroked her cheek, “Yes you are.” He leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips, then leaning in to nuzzle behind her ear. He took a deep breath in, “You smell like flowers.” He told her. “Thank you.” She answered, hardly able to speak. They sat a while, enjoying the view, enjoying each other’s company, not having the need to say anything.  “I really hate to say this, but I should probably get home.” He leaned back in and kissed her again. “We’ll have plenty of time together in Vermont. I’m very much looking forward to it.” His tone deepening and causing her to shudder uncontrollably and look into her lap nervously. He tipped up her face with his fingers, looking into her eyes. “May I kiss you?”  She just nodded, unable to speak, reaching up her hands into the hair at the nape of his neck to pull him in for it.  He wrapped his arms around her and almost pulled her onto his lap.  They sat kissing for a few minutes and he stopped and rested his forehead against her. “When are we leaving for Vermont?” he asked her with a hopeful look on his face. She laughed at him and he smiled at her. “Next Thursday, Richard.” “It’s going to be a very long week.” “Yes, it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. 
> 
> 2015 LK Fiction


	3. Work in Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A working trip soon turns into a pleasure trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. I'm overthinking things and should just trust and get it out. As always, con-crit is most welcome.

The next day, Anna had to start making plans for the photo shoot, having already secured Max Greene to take the pictures, she picked out the stylists and secured the rest of the crew. Hair, makeup and miscellaneous members for the crew to make the job go that much easier. Thankfully, it being early in the ski season yet, she was able to procure a bunch of rooms at a lodge in Vermont and the best part, they had promised snow covered trails. Anna had never skied ever before in her life and wasn’t exactly thrilled about showing Richard just how clumsy she actually was. Richard on the other hand, was very excited about the upcoming trip. He had left town for work and would be back in New York on Wednesday, having flown out to LA for some commentary work he was finishing up for Bryan Fuller. It was easier that he wasn’t physically here in NY, because she needed the time to get everything done. He was a distraction, albeit a pleasant one, but a distraction none the less. They emailed back and forth to discuss the details of the trip, they were going to drive there in a bunch of cars and a couple of vans, but she kept to business only. She had started to worry and was feeling a little self- conscious that he was losing interest in her, she got a mouthful from Liz when she expressed this to her. Just as she thought of calling him, only to go back to her office, seeing that he sent her another flower arrangement on Tuesday afternoon. The card reading, “Today I caught myself smiling for no reason, then I realized that I was thinking of you.” She took a deep inhale of the flowers and felt herself calming instantly, feeling silly about being nervous. They met on Thursday morning in front of Anna’s building. “So this is where you live?” Richard said to her as she was putting her bag in the trunk of her car. She turned around to greet him, “Yes, it’s a tiny place, I’d show you upstairs but we really have to get going if we want to stay on schedule.” He put his luggage in the trunk and fastened his ski equipment on the rack on the roof of the car. He came over and hugged her and kissed her hair, “Well, we’d be way behind schedule, but happy.” He whispered in her hair. She pulled away from him and laughed. “Now, are you going to behave on this trip?” She asked up at him, smiling. He put his hand over his heart, “Nope.” He grinned and kissed her on the lips, which she gladly returned and extended even by putting her hands behind his head. “I’ll drive first shift, ok?” He nodded and got into the passenger side. They left and before long had found their way onto the highway and out of the city. Her phone rang and she picked it up in the steering wheel in the car, “Yes?” “Hi Anna, have you picked up Prince Charming yet?” She blushed and Richard laughed out loud. “Yikes! Sorry Anna! I didn’t think you had picked him up yet.” “It’s ok Liz. Richard came to meet me to save some time.” “Well, I just wanted to wish the both of you good luck on your shoot and I’m positive that this trip will be most beneficial to everyone involved.” He looked over to Anna, who was even more red now than before answering Liz. “Thank you Liz, I promise to do my very hardest to make sure that this trip is a most pleasant experience for all of us.” He said making a face at Anna at the word “hardest”. She laughed and said, “I gotta go Liz, we’re on the road. Be safe while I’m gone.” “I will Anna, ummmm you be “safe” as well, please.” Anna laughed and disconnected the call. She glanced over at him and he smiled at her. “I’m only joking Anna, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable because of me. Ok? We can just make this a working trip.” He rested his hand on the middle console and she put her hand over his. “I don’t want that and you don’t make me uncomfortable.” She told him.  They managed to drive the little over 5 hours to Vermont without any major problems, Anna being careful to stop for food and bathroom breaks. Talking to him was starting to get much easier as time went on, they talked about different topics, her not knowing much about England, having never been there. He was telling her all about growing up in Northern England, when he just stopped. “Here I go, just prattling on and you haven’t stopped me.” “I like to hear you talk, Richard. You have a great voice.”  He blushed and tried to talk her into skiing. He seemed convinced that he could give her a lesson. She promised to be open minded about giving it a go, but assured him that everyone was safer if she just stayed in the hotel.  They switched places after a while and Richard drove them for the rest of the trip.  They listened to the radio and found that they had somewhat similar tastes in music. Mostly just keeping an eye on road and making sure that they weren’t getting lost. 

 

They had stayed in contact with the crew who arrived about a half hour before they did. The last two rooms were next to each other and Richard carried Anna’s bag to her door, “Thank you Richard. I’ll see you in 20 minutes downstairs for some dinner, ok?” He kissed the back of her hand, “Ok, see you in a bit.” She went in her room, showered fast and only towel dried her hair for a bit. She opened her door, to knock on Richard’s but he was already at her door. “Hi! I was just about to come to your door to see if you had gone downstairs yet.” “Nope, I was waiting for you.” She stepped back and invited him in the room, he went over and sat on the bed. She went over to the desk and picked up the drawings for the shoot. She came back over to him on the bed to show him the drawings. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed looking up at her. She was going through the shots and handing them to him to see while he was taking them from her and placing them on the bed, without even looking at them. He was just looking up at her, listening to her go on and on about the designs and how she was looking to set up each shot. She was in the middle of a sentence, “See I think if this way, if you were in the middle of coming down the mountain on a run and we took shots  both in the morning; and later in the day, that we would have a much better choice….” He cut her off, “You’ve figured out in what position you want me?” She stopped speaking and looked down, realizing he had been gently moving her closer to whole time while she was talking.  She was now standing in between his legs at the edge of the bed. His hands were on her hips and his thumbs were rubbing up and down. He was looking up at her with a look on his face that left no mistake in how he meant his comment. “How do you want me Anna? What would you prefer?” He took the pictures from her hands and put them with the others, his hands went back to her hips and he started tugging her towards him. He hands started to massage his shoulders and she leaned into him and whispered in his ear, “On your back.”, pushing his shoulder for him to lie down. She climbed on the bed and straddled him, kissing him and running her hands through his hair. His hands were running up and down her back, before deciding that he wanted to feel her skin. He pulled the back of her shirt up and got his hands under and started running them over her skin. “Hmmm, Richard.” She tugged on his hair and he pulled her down to his chest. She opened her mouth to deepen the kiss and he let out a groan and pulled her tighter against his chest. She savored the taste of him on her tongue and moved her arms around his neck.  He sat up and threaded his fingers in her hair. She startled and pulled back, “We’ve got to meet the crew downstairs in a few minutes.” Resting her forehead against his, trying to get her breathing under control. He cupped her face in his hands, “Ok, lovely. We can talk about this after dinner, if you want. ” He kissed her lips softly, just lightly brushing them. She pulled him back to her mouth in a searing kiss, before saying, “We’ll try this again later. Ok?” He hugged her tightly, “Anything you want.” He kissed her again before letting her up off the bed. She put out her hand and helped him up, she hugged him tightly. “Thank you Rich.” She finished getting ready and they left the room, holding hands all the way down into the restaurant. Some of the crew had been waiting outside and they all went into a private dining room that had was arranged beforehand. Dinner was set up buffet style and everyone just went over and helped themselves. The last crew members arrived and everyone was seating eating around 4 large round tables. The crew pretty much all knew each other, except for some new members. They already had their schedules and itineraries, so this was more a social setting than anything. Anna went around to greet everyone and to introduce herself to the newest members. She went back to sit next to Richard and finish eating. He had his hand on her leg, rubbing it up and down during dinner. She kept looking over at him and he would give her a grin. After dinner, someone suggested that they all head over to the disco in the hotel and have some fun. Richard’s grip tightened on her leg as she was about to answer them. She looked at Richard and was met with a half smirk, before turning back to the person who asked saying, “I have to get up super early tomorrow and so do you all of you. Your all adults here and make your own decisions, but a hangover won’t be tolerated as a reason to call out sick tomorrow.”  A couple of the crew left for the disco, but Richard had already taken Anna’s hand and was leading her to the other side of the hotel. There was a quiet bar that Richard had already checked out on line before even coming up here.  They found a couch to sit next to each other and Richard ordered them a drink. She took the tumbler and took a slow sip of the whisky. “Are you trying to get me drunk?” she smiled coyly at him. He returned the smile and took a sip, “Liquid courage.” She reached over and took his hand “Nothing to be afraid of.” while staring into his eyes. He laced his fingers with hers, “I’m not afraid, just worried that I’ll screw this up.” She drank the rest of her whisky, “You have no idea how good you’re doing right now.” His grin suddenly spread into a full blown smile, “I am?” She nodded at him and leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re doing amazing.” He turned and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. She shivered and he put his arm around her shoulder, “Are you cold? Did you want another drink?” She leaned into him and whispered in his ear, “We really should go” He pulled back to look here in the eyes “Are you sure?” He went to say something else, and she silenced him with a kiss. “Very sure” They stood up and she started for the door, while he threw some money down on the table. He caught up to her quickly and took her hand, picking it up and kissing the back of it.

 

They got into an elevator and she pushed him up against the wall and started kissing him. He laughed with surprise and she used that moment to stick her tongue in his mouth. His hands snaked around her body, one tangled in her hair and one around her ass. The groan he made only succeeded in making her more aroused. She took her hands from his shoulders and put one on his ass to grab at it and the other reaching between them, rubbing his crotch. His gasp at her forwardness made her break away from the kiss, only to move onto his neck. He was looking up at the ceiling, enjoying the moment. She reached up and grabbed his hair to move him back to where she could kiss him again. The elevator bell dinged and the doors started to open and she quickly disengaged to stand next to him. He was a rumpled mess, breathing heavy as if he’d been running. Anna realized that they never pushed a floor button and that the elevator hadn’t moved from the lobby, put her head down and let out a laugh. Richard stood up and proceeded to try to straighten himself out.  Three people got on, one extremely drunk guy and a couple that looked like they were sober. The woman of the sober couple had seen them as the doors opened and put her hand over her mouth as to not hysterical laugh. They came inside and then faced the doors, “Four please” Anna said to her, trying to sound as if nothing had happened.  The two women made eye contact in the mirrored wall and she gave Anna a thumbs up.  Richard caught the exchange and took Anna’s hand in his. She looked up at him, her face all blushed and shared a smile. He kissed her hand again and didn’t let it go. They got to Anna’s room and Richard was behind her running his hands up and down her sides, and on the 2nd try, she got the door opened. She turned back and reached up and took his face in her hands and started kissing him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and walked her backwards over the threshold of her room, then reached back blindly to make sure the door was locked. Her eyes were closed and she was all over him. Her hands were everywhere, constantly moving. She started to pull him backwards toward the bed. She was making little noises of satisfaction and groans, he responded by grabbing her ass and pulling her up against his chest. He usually was the one doing the leading, but he was excited to see how far she would go with this. She broke from the kiss when she felt the bed behind her legs. She was panting and her pupils were blown wide, her eyes appearing almost black. “Take your clothes off, Richard.” She started to undress in front of him, he only hesitating for a quick moment and then was taking his jumper off.  She was already standing in her bra and panties when she sat down on the bed. He had taken his belt off and opened  his jeans when she stopped him, he stood frozen in front of her not knowing what she wanted when she reached out and pulled him closer to her by his hips. She looked up at him, never breaking eye contact as she pushed down his pants and underwear. He put his hands on her shoulders. She ran her hands up his thighs with her nails scratching lightly along the way. He let out a moan, “Anna.” His head went back, breaking eye contact with her. “I…You…” His erection was quickly filling up and she took it in her hands. He looked back at her face in time to see her take the head into her mouth. “Mmmmm, god.” She started to move slowly, savoring the taste of him. She could feel herself soaking her panties, she took one of her hands and started rubbing herself through the panties. He saw her do this and let out a groan, “Oh Anna, please.” He gently pulled back from her and she looked up at him, wondering why he had stopped her. “Please Anna” he said, lowering his voice to the point that she knew that she was ruined for life by him. He was gently pushing her down onto the mattress, and she let him. He pulled her underwear down and off her legs, he pushed his hands under her ass, tilting her up and then proceeded to bury his face into her pussy. She arched her back and let out a hiss, he was moaning and sucking and licking different spots. He took her clit into his mouth and moved his hand down to slide a finger inside her. She pulled her legs up, bracing her feet on the bed and opened them even wider for him. She was pushing her hips up to give him as much access to her pussy as he wanted. She reached down and grabbed his hair, “You are so good at this, fuck.” He moaned and slid a second finger into her, curling them, searching out her g-spot. He found it and started stroking it, wanting her to come desperately.  Her hips were swaying back and forth and he moved his attentions back to her clit and felt her clench around his fingers. Her orgasm broke and she started to twitch and spasm, all with a smile on her face, “ohh yes Rich. I’m cumming.” He rode it out with her, still pumping his fingers and sucking her. She lowered her hips back down to the bed and was panting. He got up on his knees watching her recover, stroking himself slowly. She looked up at him, “Please tell me you’ve brought protection.” He laughed, “Yes, lovely.” He got a condom out of his wallet and came back on the bed. She took it from him and while they were both still kneeling on the bed, put it on him. She was stroking him and he took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. She pulled away from him, “On your back, Richard.” He lay down on the bed and she straddled him, taking his cock in her hand and slowly lowering herself on him. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her down so he could get in as far as her could. She was feeling so full with him in her, her head going back and letting out a deep sigh. He sat up a bit and started licking her breast and sucking it through her bra. She took it off for him, and leaned forward so he could do it again. He pushed himself up into her and she started to ride him. His hands moved from her hips to her sides, his thumbs brushing over her nipples. “Anna, you’re so beautiful.” Her hands were on his shoulders and she let go of him, she leaned back put her hands behind her on his thighs. “Fuck me, Richard.” He grabbed her hips and she was sure that he would leave bruises on her, but she didn’t care. He started thrusting up and pounding into her. She held on tight, almost breaking his skin with her nails. “Oh Anna, please tell me you’re close. Please.” “I’m close, Richard.” He thrust a few more times and started to come. Anna leaned forward again, grabbing his shoulders and was bouncing up and down on him, her orgasm hitting her soon after. “Fuck!” she yelled.  She collapsed onto his chest and he wrapped his arms around her and was stroking her back and her hair. She slowly moved off of him, wincing but it was certainly worth it. She walked over to the room’s refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. She drank some, gave it to him. He took it and drank some down. He put it aside and held his arms out for her. She snuggled up against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. “We’ve got a really early start tomorrow.” She looked up at him, “Do you want to stay?” He hugged her, “Yes. I’d like to stay.” They settled down in bed to get some rest. The next morning, her phone rang and she reached out blindly on her nightstand for it. It was 5:30am and she was tired. She saw on the caller id that it was Max Greene, the photographer. “Hello darling.” “Hi Max” She sat up in bed, Richard rolling over and drifting back to sleep. “We’re going to be starting soon, trying to catch the sunrise you know, but we can’t seem to find our talent. Would you happen to know where he is?” He said in a laughing voice, sneaking suspicion rising in her that Liz had spoken to him already. She cringed, “Yes Max. I know where he is.” He laughed through the phone, “Excellent darling. Get Prince Charming up and let’s get him down to wardrobe please.” She was about to answer him when he blew a kiss through the phone at her. “Thank you darling. We’ll see you two lovebirds very soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. 
> 
> 2015 LK Fiction


	4. Working Holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richard and Anna have work to do, but find time for fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Richard Armitage (I wish) This is an AU following no particular timeline. Con-crit is always welcome.

She rolled over and snuggled into Richard’s back and pulled the covers over them both. She was kissing all over his back and he spoke, “How long do we have?” She kissed him one last time, “Not long at all, I’m afraid.” He rolled over and pulled her into a hug, “Well, if I can’t stay in bed with you at least I’ll get some runs in.” She ran her hands through his hair and sighed into his neck. “Sorry I kept you up late Richard.” He pulled back and kissed her on the lips, “I’m not sorry at all.” He smiled at her, “I’m going next door to grab a quick shower. Will you be coming down with me?” “Yup, I have to make sure that we get the shots we need.” He threw his shirt on and jeans and found his room key. Took his shoes and belt in his hand and came back to the bed and gave her a quick kiss before leaving the room. She was still in bed when she heard him enter his own room, but jumped up to get a quick shower herself.

They met in the hallway, about 25 minutes later and took the elevator down to the one of the conference rooms in the hotel where all their stuff was set up. Wardrobe, hair and makeup were working on the 3 other models who had come along on this shoot. Two were “regular” people from the runway show and one was a professional. Diana was getting her makeup done when she spotted them come in the room, “Oh my god! It is you!” She stood up and rushed over to them, rudely pushing past her makeup artist. She stuck out her hand, “Hi Rich! I’m Diana and I’ll be your girlfriend today!” She giggled and put her hand over her mouth. “Oops! I mean, I’ll be **PLAYING** your girlfriend today!” He looked at Anna and then back at Diana and shook her hand. “Is that so? Well, hi there Diana! I’m Richard and it’s very nice to meet you.” He let go of her hand and she took his arm and started to lead him over to the makeup chairs. “Well, I’m so happy that I booked this job. When I found out who my boyfriend was going to be on this shoot, I just about peed! Since I’m such a huge fan of yours, it must be like kismet or something!” Richard looked back to Anna, she was following behind them with a smile on her face. Anna came over to the makeup chair and hugged Kate, “Hi Kate! Got everything under control?” Anna asked. Richard sat down in the other chair and Diana sat back down in Kate’s chair. Anna went to stand behind Richard’s chair. He looked up at her and made eye contact. Melanie was working the other chair and asked Anna how she wanted Richard to be. Anna stood behind him contemplating about his hair and giving Melanie instructions. Diana looked confused when Anna came over to her chair as well and asked Kate to do the makeup a certain way. Diana asked, “I’m so sorry but who are you? I got in super late last night and missed the dinner. But I did get to meet some crew in the disco. Are you the boss?” Anna smiled at her, “Yes, I guess you could call me the boss. I’m Anna Birch, Liz Sheridan asked me to come along and take care of this photo shoot for her.”  She shook Diana’s hand but Diana leaned in to whisper to her, “Anna, isn’t he fucking fabulous?!? He’s even better looking in person!” Anna laughed, “I know! Right!?!?” whispering back. Anna made eye contact over Diana’s shoulder with Kate and Kate covered her mouth to stifle her giggle. They finished up and Richard got behind the curtain to put on his first outfit. Diana took the time to pull Anna aside to talk to her. “Listen, Anna. I’ll need as many shots as I can with Richard. A girl needs all the help she can get when she’s trying to work her magic.” Anna smiled at her, “Well make sure that you get plenty of shots, don’t you worry about a thing.”  They all went outside and took a ride in the van over to the slopes. When they got by the gondola, they met Max Greene and his photography crew and the other models. “Darling Anna! You’re wearing an outfit as well?” “Just to keep warm Max, only observing today.” “Well, we’re going to go up and meet everyone else, all the equipment is over here, including your stuff Richard. He went over to get his skis and poles. He took Anna by the arm and led her over to the gondola so they could get up the hill.  Diana went after them to get herself into the gondola with Richard; but Max called her name, she turned away to look at Max and once she looked back, Richard was gone. Richard and Anna were snuggling in the gondola as it was going up the hill, she sighed into his chest. “Are you ok with this Anna?” he asked softly in her ear. She looked up at him, “I’ll be ok.” She reached up and put her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I’m fine.” He rubbed up and down her back, “Only pictures lovely.” He pulled back to look in her face, “Only pictures.” They got off and waited for everyone else to come up, once they were all situated, it was explained to Richard and the other models how they wanted them to just ski down the hill normally. There was a snow cat that was going to go ahead of them and take some natural shots. Anna rode down on the back of the other snow cat while Max took some pictures from the back of his. Diana was skiing next to Richard trying to get his attention and openly flirt, he was being very polite and sweet with her.  They got some shots, but wanted to go up again.  Anna only went back up the hill one more time with them, watching Diana fawn over Richard was becoming too stressful to witness. On the third run, she waited down at the bottom. She waited the minutes, imagining the scene on the slopes. Her imagination was running wild and she was almost nauseous with dread. She saw them from a distance coming down the hill and spotted Richard. The snow cat with Max on it came to a stop and she watched Richard follow it and stop himself right next to it. Diana stopped next to him and started talking to him.  Anna started walking over to them and saw Richard unfasten his boots from his skis. As she got closer, Rich put his hand up to Diana as if to excuse himself and started walking towards Anna. He had pushed up his mask and had a look on his face that made her stop to watch him unsure of what was going on. He closed the distance between them and swept her up into his arms and kissed her. He put his hand behind her head and grabbed a fist full of hair and wrapped his other arm around her waist pulling her tight to his chest. She gasped and dropped her gloves. The crew made some wolf whistles and Richard pulled back, searching her eyes for something with a big grin on his face. Anna smiled up at him and winked. He released her and turned back towards the crew with his arm around Anna’s waist. “Ok boys, what next?” he called out to them. Max yelled over, “We’re going to break for lunch but we’ll start back up around 2 pm. Is that ok?” Anna nodded and saw that Diana looked at little disappointed but quickly covered up with a sweet smile.  They went back to the hotel for lunch, Richard pulling Anna away to go back upstairs to his room. They ordered room service and afterwards snuggled in his bed. They all came down at 2pm to the lobby and met the vans outside for the 2 nd location, they drove about 45 minutes away from the hotel to a cabin. The staging crew were already there, almost finished with the location. They had two more concepts to shoot there and finished up around 7pm. Diana having gotten the hint from Richard and pretty much was keeping her distance from him once the pictures were taken. They got a lot of work done for day one and Max called it. They went back to the hotel and Richard followed Anna to her room. She threw herself into the bed face first and he sat down beside her. He rubbed her back and she made a noise of appreciation. “Tired, lovely?” She rolled over and looked up at him, he rubbed her stomach and she caressed his face. “You must be exhausted Rich, after everything you had to do today.” “Ehhh, wasn’t so bad.” “Would you like me to rub you down?” He nodded, put his hand up to his shoulder. “It does feel a little tight” with a grin on his face. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?” She got up and got a towel and a bottle of lotion from the bathroom, and came back in. “Strip please.”  He stood up and started to undress in front of her, watching her face the whole time. She was looking down when he dropped his pants, he stood back up and smiled at her. “See something you like?” He started to move towards her, she pulled back “Go take a hot shower please” he leaned over and kissed her on the lips. He went into the shower and came out wearing only a towel around his waist.  She gestured for him to get on the bed, he took the towel off and threw it by the desk and climbed onto the bed. She laid her dry towel over his ass and straddled him. She put some lotion on her hands and started to rub his shoulders. He was making noises of pleasure and groaned a little when she worked a particular sore spot.  She moved up to his neck, massaging there as well and then back down to his lower back. She got off him and sat on her knees next to him on the bed. She kept the towel where it was and moved below it and rubbed his legs down from the tops of his thighs down to his ankles. He was very quiet and realized that he had fallen asleep. She laughed and called down for some dinner for them both. She heard the soft knocking at the door a little while later, but didn’t open it all the way. The hotel worker looked confused, “Ma’am?” She put up her hand for the bill to sign took it from him and signed and handed it back, looking at him sheepishly. “I have a naked man asleep in the bed and I can’t let you in.” He blushed, nodded took back the signed bill from her quickly and strode away as fast as his legs could carry him. She pulled the cart into the room and closed the door. She went over to the bed and crawled up next to him. She kissed his cheek, and he stirred. “Hmmm, Hi Anna. Did I doze off?” “Yes, Richard you did but I’ll take that as a compliment. “ “You really should, that was excellent.” He propped himself up on one elbow and rolled over to his side. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was at that very moment. She was a little anxious about Diana and how women generally reacted to him on a regular basis, but she tried to push it down inside her and not think about it too hard right now. She told him about dinner and he almost got up, but stopped himself. She went and threw his clothes on the bed and turned away to give him some privacy. She went over to the table and he joined her once he was dressed. After dinner, she went into the shower and washed her hair. She came back out and he was lying in her bed and watching television but starting to doze. “Are you going to stay tonight?” He turned and looked at her in the robe, “if that’s ok with you?” He looked up at her hopeful, she nodded at him. “I’d like that.” Since they were so tired, the need for sleep won over everything else and they went to bed.  The next morning Anna woke to a chime, letting her know of an incoming email. She reached over and read the message from Liz about the pictures from the day before and how happy she was with them. They only had one more shoot that morning and could leave early that afternoon.  

 

Max texted Anna to let them know that they were ready for them. Today’s shot was over by the snowmobiling trails, so they had to go down to wardrobe and get suited up. Once they got there, Richard sat back in Melanie’s chair and Kelly called her over. “Anna, I’m so sorry. Michelle got sick and we don’t have another regular person to model, you’re going to have to sit in.” Anna whipped out her phone and sent Liz a quick text, “Did you plan this?” to which she got the reply, “Of course not.”, but Liz couldn’t help but to add a winky face emoji with it. Anna laughed and sat down in Kelly’s chair, “Make me up. I guess I have no choice.” They got their outfits on and went outside to get the last of the pictures. Michelle’s partner who was one of the men from the runway show, was already done and waiting. Diana was also dressed and done, waiting with him. They got over to the ski area and found the snowmobiles waiting for them. Max paired them up with Diana and Richard together and Anna with Rob. Anna and Rob got on one machine and Richard got on the other one. Anna noticed how Diana practically leaped onto the snowmobile to wrap her arms around Richard’s waist. Richard looked over to Anna but she turned her head away fast and just leaned into Rob’s back and tapped him on the hip to signal him to go. They took off and Richard followed them, ignoring Diana the best he could with the last two work snowmobiles bringing up the rear.  They got to the location and pulled over. Max getting off and checking the equipment and started setting up. Anna had gotten off her snowmobile and walked away from everyone a bit, when Richard came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Feeling ok lovely?” She looked up at him, smiling down to her with his adorable face. She turned to face him, “I’m ok Rich.” He hugged her tightly, “I’ve just never wanted to kick someone in their teeth as hard as I do right now.” She said into his chest.  He laughed and she looked up at him, “It’s okay Anna. Rob isn’t exactly my favorite person right now.” She cocked her eyebrow at him. “You’re kidding, right?” He kissed her on the nose, “Why? I’m not allowed to be jealous even the tiniest bit?” She stepped back to look up at him astonished. “No, because you are…..” She waved her arms in front of him, “Richard freaking Armitage, for the love of all that is holy. And I’m… I’m” She waved her hands in front of herself, he stepped closer to her and took her face in his hands “My lovely” and kissed her deeply. She pulled back, out of breath and not really sure where she was. Max made a very loud throat clearing noise, “Ok love birds! Time for the kissing to stop and the picture taking to start!” Richard laughed and turned back to wave to Max, “Coming over now, Max.” He went to walk away, she stopped him. He looked back at her, questioning. “Thank you Richard. I get it. No more worries.” He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it, “Ok lovely. Let’s get this over with, ok?” He didn’t let go of her hand while walking back to the set. Max took a ton of pictures with Richard and Diana sitting in various poses on the snowmobile, then Anna and Rob on theirs. Then he switched the couples and put Anna with Richard, and Diana with Rob. He took a bunch more photos and then decided that he wanted some action shots, instructing them to follow his snowmobile, saying that they were almost done. Diana went to get back behind Richard and Max stopped her. “No, Diana. The love birds are riding together for this. Ok?” She was looking annoyed but got onto Rob’s machine. They rode back together and Max took tons of action shots, Anna almost completely forgetting that there was even a camera, just enjoying the ride. Her arms were around Richard’s waist and he kept looking back to her when he could. They finished and went back to the hotel. There was one last lunch together, Diana sitting very cozy with Rob at another table made Anna feel much better.  The crew packed up all their stuff and started to depart. Anna packed up her stuff and went over to Richard’s room to see if he was done. She knocked on his door and he opened it, “Are you just about ready to go? We’ll need to check out soon if we want to get back on the road.” He yanked her into the room and pushed her up against the door. He was kissing her neck and running his hands up and down her sides and pulling her closer to him. “It’s a surprise lovely. We aren’t leaving.” She put her hand up to his chest, gently pushing him back. “What do you mean Rich? It’s Sunday, I need to be back at work tomorrow.” “Nope, I emailed Liz to ask if you could stay with me.” “Rich, I…” He pulled her closer to him, rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip, “Please lovely. I didn’t get to mention it, but I’m leaving this week for Ireland to work.” “Ireland?” “Ireland.” “How long?” “A month.” She looked up at him, “Ok, I guess we’re staying. When did Liz say to return me?” “You have to be back in the office on Wednesday, so we’re leaving Tuesday.” She went back into her room to get her stuff and bring it back into Richard’s room.  She looked at her phone, there was a text message from Liz that just read, “You’re welcome.”  They proceeded to spend the rest of Sunday on skis; with Richard dragging her back out to the slopes, trying to give her a lesson. Which was a total disaster, but she did try to warn him. He spent his entire time, picking her back up from the ground, which he secretly loved but didn’t tell her. Once they were frozen, then went back to the hotel and got some dinner. That night he paid special attention to her bruises from the slopes by kissing each and every one of them. They made love again and fell asleep in each other’s arms. Early Monday morning was spent in bed, snuggling with slow, passionate kisses. They finally roused themselves out of bed.  After she insisted on taking separate showers; (Otherwise they’d never get out of the room! A fact that he had to concede being true), they were able to get out into the town and do some walking around. They had lunch and were just enjoying being in each other’s company and window shopping. Richard took a bunch of pictures as well and took one of the two of them standing over a site-seeing bluff with beautiful views. He snapped one picture while she was hugging him (Anna not paying attention) of her back, her face obscured in the shot from being snuggled in his jacket in his chest. He was completely visible as was the view behind him. He tweeted the picture with the caption, “Life changing. My cup runneth over. #bestweekendever” They went back to the hotel and relaxed in the room. Since she was feeling tired, they ordered room service and spent their last night in Vermont in the room, snuggling with each other in bed. They rose early the next morning and checked out to begin the long drive home. He drove the first shift and they mostly sat in silence, holding hands and listening to music. About halfway home, they stopped for a bite and to stretch their legs. They talked about the project that Richard was going to do in Ireland. Back on the road, Anna took over the driving and Richard dozed off in the seat. She woke him once they got to the bridge to ask him his address. Sleepily he sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Go to your place, lovely.” She went back to her apartment, parking her car in the garage. They went up to her apartment and ordered in dinner. Richard was sitting in her living room after when she went into her bedroom to get into one of her nicer bra and panty sets that she thought he might prefer. She went out to him, watching the news. She cleared her throat and he did a double take, noticing her outfit. She held out her hand and he stood up and turned off her tv. He came over and took her hand and let her into the bedroom. He stood by her bed as she slowly undressed him, not breaking eye contact with him. He was looking down at her like she was something he was going to eat. He kept licking his lips and making groaning noises every time she would get something else off of him.  He scooped her up and placed her gently onto the bed, “How do you want me?” she asked him. “Turn over.” She followed his instructions and knelt on the bed, he slid her panties off of her and started to kiss her legs, working his way up to her ass. A few bites and kisses had her moving around and making gasps, goose bumps rising on her skin as he ran his hands all over her body. He knelt behind her on the bed and kept kissing her, finally moving his mouth to taste along her at her core. She arched up and he grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled a little bit. He let go and placed his hands on her hips and proceeded to pull her back so he could keep her still while he explored all of her quickly moistening folds. He slid his tongue up and down and started to work her clit, sucking it into his mouth. He pushed a finger into her and started to slowly move it in and out. She made a groan and her wet heat clenched around his finger. He added a 2nd one and proceeded to move them around in a desire to stroke her g-spot. “Hmm lovely. You taste delicious.” She was rolling her hips for him, unable to keep still. She tensed up and he felt the pressure around his fingers. She started to push herself into his face and he loved every moment of her climax. Once she started to come down, he got up and put a condom on. She was still recovering with her face on the bed, but her ass in the air, when she felt him rubbing his hard cock along her folds. “You’re a tease” she told him. “No ma’am. I’m here for you.” He slowly pushed in and only went half way. “God, you’re so tight. It’s so good.” He reached around to the front and grabbed her tits and started to roll his fingers along her nipples.  He pushed all the way in and was crowded around her in an almost protective like manner. He tucked under her and grabbed her shoulders, putting himself into a position for shallow thrusts. Eventually, he started to quicken his pace, leaning back and grabbing her hips. She pushed back on him and was starting to tremble, he knew that she was going to cum soon. He reached around and played with her clit, her orgasm bursting through and taking him with her. After cleaning up, they got back into bed and slept in each others arms.

The next morning, Anna woke early to find herself in bed alone. She put on her robe and went out into the kitchen to find Richard, making her breakfast. He put a cup of coffee in front of her and kissed her temple. They ate breakfast in relative silence, not wanting to talk about their upcoming separation. They took a shower together but only to be close to each other, Anna with tears in her eyes. She was thankful that water was running all over her face, she didn't want him to see how sad she was that he was going away. They got dressed and left her apartment together. He was holding her in his arms on the corner of her block, kissing her hair. "I'll call you often." "I don't want to interrupt you while you are on-set. Don't worry, just send me a quick email and that'll be enough." He pulled back, "Not enough for me" he said looking into her eyes, seeing them well up. "Aww, don't cry lovely." Taking her back into his arms, "I'll miss you terribly." He kissed her and was going to kiss again but she pulled back, "Go, now." She smiled tearily up at him and he laughed. "Go, now Richard. It's going to get ugly in about a minute and I don't want that to be what you remember of me." He kissed her once more, nodded and held up his hand for a cab. Thank goodness one pulled up right away, before she lost it. He got in and pulled away, looking back at her. She waved bye to him and quickly turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, wiping her tears away.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. 
> 
> 2016 LK Fiction


	5. London Calling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liz meets Tom in London for his play and guess who gets to tag along.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Richard Armitage (I wish) or Thomas Hiddleston (though it would be nice). This is a work of fiction, please be gentle. As always, con-crit is welcome
> 
> This chapter is what riolebon has been waiting for, I think.....

Anna went to her office and shut her door. She sat at her desk and stared at the blank computer screen for about an hour. Her phone buzzed, but she ignored it. She heard light tapping on her door, “Go away.” She said, not wanting to talk to a soul. Liz opened her door, came in and sat in a chair by Anna’s desk. “Ok, alright. He’s going to be away for a bit, but you’ll get to talk to him lots and he’ll come back and all will be good again.” Anna looked at her, “I know, I know. How did the pictures come out?” Liz stood up and walked back over to the door, “They actually look great, you can come over to my office and see them if you’d like.” She opened the door and left without another word. Anna sighed deeply and then stood up and followed Liz to her office to see the pictures.

Richard called Anna on the way to the airport to say goodbye. She only cried a couple of tears while on the phone with him as he cooed in her ear to soothe her. He talked about how he was going to miss her and not to worry and he was going to contact her as soon as he landed. He only heard her sniffle a few times and he had the biggest grin on his face as he hung up with her. Anna returned to her life BPC (Before Prince Charming – as Liz referred to it) and threw herself into work. She would text back and forth with him and Skype a couple of times, mostly missing each other because of the time difference. She didn’t want to upset his method of working, but he insisted on staying in touch with her.   

After about two weeks, Anna was surprised to get a delivery of roses at her office. She opened the card, “Miss you.” was all the card read. She almost started to cry, but then stopped herself. She knew that it wouldn’t be much longer before she saw him. Liz came into her office and saw the roses, saw Anna’s face and threw her hands up in the air. “Alright, alright! This has gone on long enough! How can I cheer you up? Hmm? ” She crossed her arms over her chest, “You are just going to have to come to London with me when I visit Tom.” Anna jumped up from her desk to run and hug Liz, “Really? You’re taking me?” “Of course, I am! How could I not take you?” Anna hugged her again, “When are we leaving?” “Two days” “Two days!!!” Anna yelled out. “Is it too late to get me a ticket?” “Honey, I got your ticket the day Rich left.” She emailed Richard as soon as Liz left her office about her going to London. Richard answered her back pretty quickly with his excitement for her trip, but he had a pretty tight shooting schedule and it might be hard to get away. She understood and was slightly disappointed but said to him that at least it would be easier to talk and Skype being in the same time zone.  

**********

Anna and Liz touched down in Heathrow in the early hours on Friday morning. Sleepily getting thru customs and baggage claim was a major hassle; but the car waiting for them curbside with Liz’s name in the window, obviously sent by Tom was a godsend. The women got into the car while the driver was loading their luggage in the boot. “Hmm, someone is trying very hard, Liz. “Ehh, we’ll just see how hard.” They started laughing but contained themselves once the driver got back into the car. Anna fell asleep on the ride in, Liz woke her once they arrived at the hotel. "We're here. Wait until you see this." Anna got out of the car, and realized where they were. "Liz, ummm this is the Savoy." "Yup, we're here to have a good time and we're splurging." Once they checked in they were led to their suite, finding a lovely basket upon their arrival. Liz picked a little at the fruit and Anna ran into her room and dove onto her bed. "Can't take you anywhere, can I?" Anna stuck her tongue out at Liz, "Don't worry. I'll behave tonight." Anna rolled over the bed and reached for her phone. Calling down to the front desk, she arranged spa treatments in the suite for them.   While their feet were getting done, the front desk called to let them know that a messenger had dropped off tickets for tonight's performance and they could get them on the way out. After a very relaxing afternoon of massages and Mani/Pedi's they were feeling quite relaxed. They got themselves ready and Anna was waiting in the living room of the suite for Liz to appear from her room. "Do I look ok?" Liz was calling out to Anna when she came into the living room and stopped when she saw a flash. "Just marking down the evening for proof." "Proof to whom?" "Proof to your little T-Hiddle babies that I was there when Mummy and Daddy first fell in love." Liz laughed at her. "Let's not get a head of ourselves, Ok?" "Funny that you should say "a head" Liz." Liz put her wrap over her dress, started walking towards the door. She looked back at her friend with a sly smile."I thought you were going to behave." Anna put her hands up, zipper motion over her mouth, got her stuff and followed Liz out of the room.

Led by an usher to their front row seats, Anna was looking around. "This is going to be amazing, he's getting very good reviews." Liz nodded, looking up at the stage, "I've read a couple of them. He's emailed me a couple of times since he's been back. He's a really dedicated guy." “Have you been carrying on a email conversation with him?” “Just a couple of emails…. And phone calls and Skype sessions.” She said with a big, giant grin. "Liz, are you gushing?" Liz blushed and put her head down, then leaned over to whisper in her friend’s ear, "Not yet, but hopefully later." They both covered their mouths to laugh as to not call attention to themselves. Soon the lights were blinking softly to indicate the start of the show. Anna looked over at Liz once more before settling in her seat to watch the show. Soon the lights went down completely and the stage lit up.

*********

The show was phenomenal, and just took their breaths away. They were still sitting in their seats looking at each other in shock when the cast started to come out to take their bows. Everyone else were already on their feet, Anna and Liz jumped up and were applauding like crazy. Tom was the last one to appear and the place went bananas. He took a bow by himself and then lined up with everyone else to bow as a group. Tons of flowers and gifts were lining the front of the stage, Tom spotted Liz in the front row and winked at her. Anna looked from Tom to her friend and laughed at her blush. Liz was still applauding and wouldn't take her eyes off of Tom. The cast bowed a couple more times and then left the stage. They sat back in their seats and waited for an usher to come get them to go backstage.  

About 20 minutes later, they were led backstage to a reception area. A few of the other cast members were there, talking with other guests who were there. Liz put her hand on Anna's shoulder, "I'm just going to go over to his dressing room and check on him.", trying to sound very nonchalant. Anna gave her a sly smile, "Don't worry about me, just keep it down alright?" Anna watched her friend head over to the door and knock on it lightly. The door was opened a crack and then a little more as arm reached out, grabbed her friend and yanked her in and was slammed shut. Anna looked around to see if anyone had noticed, they didn't so she headed over to grab a drink in the reception area. _Go get em, girl!_

Liz was pushed up against the door that she had just been yanked through and before she could even squeak out a word was being kissed ravenously. His one hand was cupping her jaw to hold her in place, the other hand roaming up and down her side, then her back and squeezing her bottom. "Tom.." she couldn't even get a word out. "I'm so glad that you are here, darling." He said, stopping to look at her face. She was panting and looking up at him. "It's been far too long since we saw each other last." He told her before burying his hands in her hair and pulling her up against him again to kiss her, pushing his tongue against her lips, gaining entry. Her hands that were frozen above her head, reached out for his waist and then and only then did she realize that he was wearing only a towel. "Tom?" _Jesus help me._ "Tom?" she asked again between kisses. He moved his attentions to her neck and he ground his hips against hers. "Yes, darling?" "Are you naked?" He pulled back to look in her eyes with his killer smile, "as the day I was born, beautiful." He hugged her once more and kissed her forehead. He led her over to the couch in his dressing room and kissed her cheek, "I'll be right back." He went into the bathroom and got dressed while Liz fanned herself and tried to recover on the couch. He came out dressed and started to throw some things in his bag. Liz pouted on the couch, Tom came over and kissed her on her lips this time, "You'll have me all to yourself in a bit, darling. I have to just finish up here and we'll be off." She looked up sheepishly, "I know it's very important for you to meet people. Sorry to misbehave." He helped her up and walked her to the door, opened it up and whispered in her ear "We'll misbehave later." placing his hand on her ass as he lead her out of the dressing room, putting his hand around her waist before being caught by anyone.  

They left a little while later, the ladies hiding in the car as Tom was signing things and taking selfies with his fans outside the stage door. "He's so nice to his fans." Anna said. Liz was watching him out the window, not really paying attention. "Earth to Liz, are you here?" Anna tapped her on the shoulders, trying to get her attention. Liz turned to her and smiled. "He's so pretty, no?" "Yes, Liz. He's very pretty. She smiled at her friend, enjoying seeing the look on her face. Tom finished up and got into the car with them, waiting until they were pulled away from the theatre to wrap his arms around Liz. They got back to the hotel and ordered room service. Anna thanked him again for the tickets and told him how great the show was. He was very shy and humble about it, Liz noted. The three of them made some small talk and Anna was really worried that since she was present, she was going to ruin things for her friend. As they finished up, Tom stood and bowed to Anna. He scooped Liz up, threw her over his shoulder and said, "Which way?" Anna started laughing hysterically and gestured over her shoulder, relieved. Tom promptly walked past Anna and she turned around to see Liz laughing before he disappeared into Liz's bedroom with her.  Tom closed the door behind him and went over and deposited Liz on her bed. She was still laughing but abruptly stopped when she looked down and saw Tom crawling up the bed towards her. He quickly reached the top of the bed and kissed her deeply. "Now, no more interruptions." he told her. He reached over his head and pulled his t-shirt off and threw it to the side. Liz sat up and Tom reached back and found the zipper to her dress and undid it. She stood up from the bed and let the dress fall down, leaving her only in her undergarments. "Is that for me? Oh darling! How very thoughtful of you." He stood up and came over to her, taking her in his arms kissing her face, moving down to her neck. She reached for his belt and he made a groaning noise. She took that as a good sign and continued undressing his lower half. She pulled away from him and lowered herself down to the floor. He stood still watching her, not wanting to push her either way, letting her take the lead. "Are you sure that you want to do this, Liz?" She took him in hand, and looked up at him. "I've been waiting for this" licking up the entire length of him. "Waiting for you." she said before taking the head of his cock into her mouth. He put his hands in her hair, and was massaging her scalp. He fought hard not to buck his hips when she would take him in deeply into her mouth. Liz had her hands on the length of his shaft that she didn't have in his mouth, moving them up and down. He couldn't take much more before coming undone, his desire was too great. He pulled back and she looked up worried that she'd done something wrong. He smiled down at her, taking her arm. "Please Elizabeth, I want to come **with** you the first time we’re together." She stood up and he knelt down in front of her. Taking her panties in his fingers, he slid them down and helped her to get out of them. He then stood up and reached around behind her and undid her bra. He slid the straps down and took it off her. "It's like opening a lovely present." She blushed and he loved watching it go from her face, down to her chest. He took her hand and they got back into the bed, getting comfortable on top of her. She hugged him tightly and said, "I'm clean, Tom and have an IUD, so we don't need a condom if you’re clean too." She reached in between them and took him in hand, guiding him to her wetness. She stroked him up and down her outer folds to get him wet and he closed his eyes and let his head drop down and groaned. "Yes, Elizabeth. I'm clean." He pushed himself into her and rested his head next to hers on the pillow, not allowing for a single millimeter of space between them.  After a moment, he pulled back and stared into her eyes, "Thank you for trusting me. I won't hurt you." He started to move very slowly. Her hands were stroking up and down his back, enjoying the feeling of his hard muscles flexing and contracting. He braced himself on his forearms to allow for a longer and faster thrust. She wrapped one of her legs around him, enjoying the new position. He was kissing all over her face, neck, shoulders and she felt like she wasn't going to last much longer. She grabbed his ass and his hips stuttered. She put both hands up and cradled his face, gently speaking to him, "So good Thomas, so fucking good." He started thrusting harder, not taking his eyes off of hers. She could feel herself dancing along the edge of her orgasm, just waiting for the coil to snap. Her eyes closed and she arched into him, "I'm coming Tom, oh please come." He continued to thrust into her, enjoying the way she was contracting around him and flood of moisture from her. Then he felt the sudden tingling in his spine and knew he was about to come. He leaned down to her, pushing his tongue into her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and rode out their now joined, orgasm. He continued to thrust until spent. She had her arms around him, just stroking his hair. He was breathing heavily into her neck, kissing her and murmuring how great she felt.

He pulled out of her, and got up and went into the bathroom. He came back to clean her with a warm washcloth, which surprised her. She watched his retreating back and lovely round, muscular ass and then enjoyed the front view as he walked back over to the bed, smiling up at him. He gave her a grin, and climbed into the bed with her, spooned against her back and wrapped his arm around her middle. They lay there for a while, dozing off for a bit. After about an hour or so, Liz was jostled from her nap by Tom’s arm going over her waist and being pulled closer to him. She half rolled over to see that he was very sleepy. She rolled back to her original sleeping position and started to rub back against him. His hand that was around her waist, started moving up her side and then cupping her breast. His breathing shortened, and was mumbling into the nape of her neck, "Mmm, Elizabeth." She moved his hand from her breast down to her stomach to reach just the outside of her moist core. She moved his hand up and down, showing him how ready she was for him. Tom pushed two fingers into her and started slowly moving them in and out. She gasped, he removed his fingers and she made a noise of frustration. He lifted her leg and moved it back over his leg, so he could slide in easily from behind her. He started off very slowly, running his hand up and down her side, to her breast and down her back. She reached down and put her hand where they were joined and put her fingers on either side of him going in and out of her. He shuddered and started to pick up his pace. He started kissing her all over her shoulders and back, everywhere he could reach. His hand joined hers and moved it up to massage her clit, trying to get her to come. She was overwhelmed by her orgasm, a sharp gasp escaping her. Her contracting around him was the finish that he needed, and he nipped and licked at her shoulder while he was cumming. This time after resting for a bit, she went into the bathroom to get a clean flannel and when she brought it out, he reached up to take it from her. She looked confused, "I told you before, I won't hurt you. It's my job to take care of you Elizabeth." She let him bring her back into bed, clean her off and watched the amazing view for a 2nd time that night. They got settled into the bed again and he spooned up against her, enjoying her softness. She fell asleep pretty quickly and he stayed awake for a while listening to her before falling off himself. The next morning, Liz woke up and the sun still hadn’t risen completely yet. The room was slightly dark but Liz could make out Tom beside her in bed. He was lying on his stomach and was facing away from her in bed. She leaned against him and ran her hand down his back; he stirred slightly, but then went back to sleeping. She could feel the strong muscles in his back underneath his soft skin. He was so beautiful from every angle. It’s quite ridiculous, she thought to herself.  She ran her hand all the way down underneath the blanket and ran her hand over his ass. She had been dying to do that ever since he walked away from her the night before and she got a look at his perfectly sculpted ass. _I knew that it was amazing, but this is even better that I had imagined._ She slid the blanket down slowly as it was slowly exposed to her view. It was round and perfect and needed to be bitten. She couldn’t believe that she was going to do this, but when is one presented with this kind of opportunity? _Umm, never. So I’d better make the best of my situation and do it._ She rested her head on the middle of his back, still looking down at his ass. _I bet I could bounce a quarter off that thing!_ He started to wake up but only turned his head over to see Liz’s side of the bed. “Elizabeth?” He said in the most incredibly sleep laden, sexy voice that she had ever heard. It made her core clench and she felt herself moisten.  “Hmm?” she said as she lowered herself down to the swell of his ass and kissed it. “What are you doing?” She bit one side and then the other. “Nothing, just getting a bite of something sweet.”  He laughed and turned over, pulling her up to face him. “My turn” He kissed her on the lips and rolled on top of her. “Breakfast?” she said. He started kissing her neck, working his way down to her chest and stopping to take a nipple into his mouth. ”No thanks, I’ve got something already.” She laughed, “Tom, seriously. We’ll need some food to keep our strength up.” He made a groaning noise and rolled off of her. “Ok, I’d hate to be the reason for your malnutrition. Room Service?” He said standing up to go over to the desk in her room and grab the menu. He ran back over and flopped onto the bed, bouncing Liz up. She laughed at him and he curled up next to her, resting his head on her breast and handed her the menu. She looked over to her phone and saw that she had a text message from Anna that she had left already to go sightseeing.

 

Anna had gone to her room very soon after Liz and Tom left, not wanting to disturb them. Truth be told, it was actually because the keen desire of not wanting to hear anything that would make her feel embarrassed around them. Settling herself in bed with her laptop to answer any work emails, she checked her personal email first. Richard had emailed her a couple of hours ago asking if the play went well. She sent him back a message about how great the show went, gushing about Tom's performance. She heard the telltale chime from Skype and smiled to herself, knowing that it could only be one person. She opened Skype and answered Richard's request with a smile. The session opened and had to stop herself from gasping out loud. Richard was in the bathroom of his hotel room from what she could tell and he had his tablet propped up on the counter of the sink. He was trimming his beard, and was looking straight at himself in the mirror instead of at her. "Hello there, my lovely." he said in that voice that never failed to make her shiver. She said, "Hi Richard, what exactly are you doing?" "Just a trim, love. Since we’ve finished shooting the ad, and I’m wearing it shorter for the movie,  I'm just cleaning it up at bit." "Be really careful please.” He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her in the screen. She looked very concerned and had her brow scrunched up at him. _She's crazy about me._ The corner of his mouth went up in a small grin, "Anna, do you like me better with my beard? Are you worried about me taking it off?" She looked very flustered and tried to put on a look of indifference that he wasn't buying. "Not at all, I'm just making sure that the campaign is perfect. I’m not sure if there need to be any re-shoots done when you get back and for the sake of continuity, I just thought that….” He raised an eyebrow at her, “Anna, it’s ok to tell me if you have a preference.” She put her hands over her face and peeked at him through her fingers.  Saying with a muffled voice, “Ok, right now. I prefer you with a beard. Please don’t shave it off.”  “What was that lovely, I couldn’t hear you?” She knew that he was having a little fun with her and she knew that she’d have to say it again. She took her hands down from her face, “Ok, ok. Right now, I’d very much prefer if you didn’t shave your beard off. Are you happy now?” She said laughing and he laughed as well. He raised his hands up and turned off the water in the sink, grabbing the tablet and heading into his bedroom. He propped himself in his bed and set up his tablet to face him. "Ok, so tell me about the show. How was it? Has Tom replaced the #1 British actor in your heart?” he gave her the puppy dog eyes and she practically swooned right there. "Of course not! Benedict Cumberbatch knows that he could never be replaced." She stuck out her tongue at him as he placed his hand over his heart and fell over on the bed. "You wound me deeply, Anna." She laughed at him. He rolled back on this side to look at her, looking very serious. "I'm really glad that you are having fun so far in England, but I miss you." “We’ll see each other soon.” He ran his hand on the screen as if to touch her hair, "Not soon enough for me, lovely." She looked away from the screen, too overwhelmed to answer him. After a moment, he softly said "Look at me Anna." She turned back to see him place his hand over his heart. "I really can’t wait to see you" giving her the "smoulder" look that she'd seen so many times on television or movies. She'd always imagined what it would be like to have him really look at her like that and would she even be able to handle it without fainting. She suddenly realized that she was in love with him. Not the gushing that she had done in the past over him, if anything these weeks getting to know the "real him” had only solidified her feelings for him. "We’ll both be home very soon. I miss you too Richard." She smiled at him and snuggled down into her bed and turned on her side to peek at him on the screen. "I'm really tired and going to get some sleep now, sorry to end so quickly." "No worries, Anna." “Good night Richard.” “Good night, lovely.” She ended the session and curled up to sleep. Richard rolled over on his back and was staring at the ceiling, thinking how much he missed her and wanted to hold her. Suddenly, he sat straight up in bed, looking at his watch. He grabbed one of his bags from the closet and threw some stuff in. He texted the director of the movie, could they do without him for just two days? It took a while for a response but luckily, there was an issue with one of the locations not being ready for them and Richard was given permission to leave. He went online and purchased a ticket for the next available flight. He went downstairs and got a cab to the airport. He got there and realized that he would have to wait, as he was a little early for his flight. He was directed to the lounge to wait. He tried to read the paper, but couldn’t sit still. He got up and started pacing the lounge. Finally; after waiting what seemed like forever, he heard his flight being called. He rushed to the gate to board his plane.  He couldn’t wait to surprise her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read this.
> 
>  
> 
> 2016 LK Fiction


	6. At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richard has a surprise for Anna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Richard Armitage (too bad for me). This is a work of fiction. 
> 
> As always con-crit is welcome.

Richard landed in Heathrow, and he dashed outside the terminal to grab a cab. He didn’t even know where he was headed, he realized as he was riding in the cab towards the city. Is she in the hotel or out site seeing? He didn’t even know which hotel she was even staying at. He texted Tom to get the info and got an answer back right away. He couldn’t wait to surprise her. 

Tom was eating breakfast with Liz in the main part of the suite. She had stopped eating to watch him texting with someone.  
“Is everything ok?” Liz asked Tom as he placed his phone back down onto the table.  
“All is well, darling. That was Richard texting me, asking where you and Anna are staying while you are here.” Liz’s head snapped up at his response.

“Hmmm, I wonder what he’s up to?” Liz asked Tom. He shrugged his shoulders,  
“Your guess is as good as mine. Now, are you feeling full?” She nodded at him, taking a bite of her toast. He had already finished his breakfast and was waiting for her. He stood up and walked around to her side of the table. He leaned over and gave her a chaste kiss, she smiled up at him. She kept her hand in his hair and when he tried to pull away, she tugged him back down for another. He gladly leaned back in to give another kiss, more desirable this time.  
“Hmmm, you are so sexy Hiddleston.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and he tucked his hands under her bottom and scooped her off the chair as if she didn’t weigh a thing. She let out a yelp at being picked up.  
“Where are we going?” as he started walking towards her room.  
“We, are going to take a shower, and get cleaned up. And then we’re going out.” She laughed and tucked her head under his chin, letting him carry her into the bathroom.  
“I have a little bit of time before having to be back at the theater and I want to take you around a bit. Does that sound like fun?” She purred into his neck,  
“I’ll take that as a yes.” 

****

Anna was walking around London, seeing different sites. She had snuck out of the room, trying to give Liz and Tom some “alone” time. Not that they needed it, the room was far enough away from hers that she didn’t hear a thing. She went to Buckingham Palace first and spent about an hour there. She took a selfie, but didn’t post it on line and sent it to Richard. He texted her back right away,  
‘Is her Majesty at home?’ She laughed at his text and took some more pictures. Her phone beeped with an incoming call. She saw that it was Richard and picked up right away.  
“Hello? Richard? How are you? Are you on break right now? I miss you.” She was so excited to hear from him and was talking very fast. He laughed at her excitement and she started to giggle.  
“Hullo, my lovely. Are you having fun? Where are you right now?” His voice was very low and she shuddered at the tone of it.    
“Yes, Richard. I love it here, everything is amazing. Right now, I’m walking up the mall away from Buckingham Palace. Let me sit on a bench and I’ll Skype you.” Looking around, seeing an empty spot about 10 feet away.  
“No!” he exclaimed, startling her.  
“I’m just outside the makeup trailer for just a second and thought I’d try to call and say a quick Hello.”  
“Oh, ok.” She sounded crushed. He winced at the disappointment in her voice, but couldn’t take the chance of her seeing him and recognizing that he was in London looking for her.  
“I just wanted to see your lovely face. I miss it.” She sounded even more disappointed to him than before. He felt so guilty, but it would only be a little while longer.  
“Aww my lovely…. I’m going to make sure that you see my face sometime today. I give you my word.” His voice cracked at he spoke to her. She heard the emotion in his voice and her heart started pounding and could feel the all familiar tingle in her stomach when he spoke to her that way.  
“It’s ok Richard, I know how busy you are. I can’t wait to see your face later today. What time do you think  you can Skype me?”  
“Very soon lovely, I’ll text you first to make sure that you are free. Where you off to now?”  
“I’m going to head over to the “Eye” right now. Then maybe grab a bite to eat.”  
“Ok, I’ll be in touch very soon.”  
“Ok, bye.”

He hung up with her and re-directed the driver to the London eye instead of her hotel. He just couldn’t wait anymore, he just wanted to get his hands on her as soon as possible. Within a while, he arrived at the eye, he paid the driver and got out looking for her. He made his way over to the line for the ride, searching for her. It had been about 30 minutes or so since he’d hung up with her. He’d had sunglasses on and put his hood up, he didn’t want her to see him first and recognize him.

 *******************

Anna pocketed her phone and sat on the bench for a few minutes, looking around at the people walking by. She missed Richard terribly, but was very hopeful at the thought of seeing him later. She got up and started walking again and was able to stop at Big Ben to take some pictures on her way to the Eye. As she came up to the sidewalk, she tilted her head back to look up at the size of it. It was amazing, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go up that high. Her phone beeped with a text message, seeing it was from Richard.  
‘Is now too soon?’ she was so excited to hear from him, she didn’t even wait to answer him back. She went onto Skype right away and video called him. He picked up right away and she was so happy to see him, she didn’t even notice anything about his location.  
“Richard, I’m so glad that I didn’t have to wait for very long to see you.” She was beaming at him. He laughed and gave her a big smile,  
“Well, I promised you that you’d see my face very soon, didn’t I?” He raised an eyebrow at her.  
“But I can’t see your face, why are you wearing sunglasses? Take them off please.”  
“Just for a moment longer lovely, where are you?”  
“I’m at the Eye now, do you want to see it?” she moved around with her phone so he could see it behind her. He saw the stand where to buy tickets next to her and knew where she was standing. She saw him looking up and away from his phone to look around and saw him focus on something on his left side and smile widely.  
“Richard, where are you? Are you too busy to talk right now?” She could see that he was walking now, he’d taken off his sunglasses and walking with a purpose towards something with a big grin on his face.  It looked as though he was in a city, she was very confused.  
“I thought you were in…” she was immediately covered in shade from a person standing behind her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and spun around to see who it was. There was that grin again; but instead of seeing it on her phone, it was standing right there in front of her.  
“The Irish countryside, no I’m not there at the moment.” He was standing in front of her, ending their call and putting his phone in his pocket. She was shocked to see him, speechless actually. She thought she was hallucinating. She reached out and put her hand on his cheek, not believing he was in front of her.  
“Yes love, I’m here.” He put his hand over hers. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying her caress. Opening his eyes back up, he could see tears streaming down her face.  
“Richard!” she suddenly snapped out of her trance. She reached out both her hands and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him in close to kiss him. She kissed his lips, but didn’t stop there. She kissed his cheeks, nose, and eyebrows before stopping to look at him, just to double check and make sure it was him.  
“How did you get away? I can’t believe you’re here! You came to see me?” came out in one giant rush and she could feel her cheeks beaming bright red.  
“I needed to see you Anna, I couldn’t stay away.” She looked down at his feet, completely embarrassed by his words. He put his finger under her chin and made her look up at him.  
“I love you Anna. I couldn’t wait anymore and had to come find you to tell you.” He wrapped his arms around her in a crushing embrace and proceeded to kiss the living daylights out of her. She reached up and put her hands in his hair and melted into him. She stopped kissing very abruptly and looked up at him, her pupils blown wide looking up at him.  
“I love you too, Richard.” She pulled him back to her lips by his hair and, he crushed her to his chest again.  After a couple of moments, she could hear clapping and some whistling going on. She broke the kiss to look around at the little crowd that had stopped to watch their reunion. Burying her face in his chest, she could feel him laughing.  He rubbed her back and whispered in her ear,  
“Let’s go, love.” She took his hand and started walking back to the street to catch a cab. There was one at the curb waiting already and they jumped in.  
“The Savoy Hotel, please.” He told the driver, she looked up at him with surprise  
“How’d you know where I was staying?” He booped her on the nose,  
“A little birdy told me.” She climbed into his lap, straddling him.  
“I’m so glad you’re here.” She pulled his shirt up out of his pants, so she could touch his skin.  
“Anna, be careful.” He grabbed her wrists. She looked up at him with a little smirk, as he held her hands behind her back, making her arch up into him even more. He buried his head in her neck, whispering in her ear,  
“The driver will get in eyeful, if you don’t behave.” She started to grind herself in his lap, making him gasp out loud and let go over her hands. She grabbed hold of his hair and pulled him close to her.  
“He can go find his own girl.” She started kissing him and he leaned back and enjoyed the ride back to the hotel. She bit his bottom lip and licked at it until he opened his mouth and let her have his tongue. She was sucking on it, running her hands up his back and back to his chest.  
“Did you want to stop first and get something to eat?” He asked, looking up at the ceiling of the cab after pulling his face away from hers to speak to her.  
“Hmrisshgheser” she moved to his neck and was kissing and sucking on his collarbone. He started to laugh, placing his hands on her shoulders and pulled her away from his neck.  
“What was that you said?”, he was now laughing at her full on pout face.  
“Room service, Rich. It’s quite good. We won’t have to leave the room.” She leaned in again to kiss him, but heard a loud throat clearing noise.  
“We’ll be arriving at our destination in about 3 minutes, if you’d like to use the time left to set yourselves to rights back there.” Said the cabbie, Anna looked over her shoulder to see him peering at them through the rear view mirror. She laughed and climbed off Richard’s lap and next to him. Richard was visibly aroused and Anna giggled.  
“I’m so sorry about that Rich.” He reached out and took her hand and kissed it.  
“It’s fine, love. You can make it up to me in the room.” His eyebrows raised up at her. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.  
“Of course baby.”  
They came into the suite and Anna called out,  
“Liz!? Are you here?” She walked over to Liz’s bedroom door and knocked on it.  
“I take it that we’re alone then?” Anna walked over to Richard and grabbed him by the waistband of his jeans and started pulling him towards her room.  
“I’m beginning to think that you only want me for my body, Anna.” Sounding very hurt. She looked back and laughed at him. She looked at him with a cheeky smirk,  
“That’s right. It’s only about your body.” She pulled him in and shut her door. She continued to pull him over to the foot of her bed and left him standing in front of it. She started opening up his shirt buttons and he stood stock still, letting her have her way. She pushed the shirt down over his shoulders and ran up hands up and down his chest.  
“And what an amazing body it is, Rich.” She continued to undress him slowly, having trouble making eye contact with him staring at her so intently. He put his finger under her chin to make her look up at him. “I love you Anna” he whispered to her.  
“I love you Rich” she whispered back. He leaned down and started kissing along her neck and biting her a little bit. She could feel her pulse quicken and rested her hands on his hips. He reached around and cupped her ass and picked her up off the ground as if she didn’t weigh a thing.  
“Shower” he mumbled into her neck. She wrapped her arms around him and nodded.  
“Ok, whatever you need baby.” He pulled back and looked into her eyes,  
“Just you, lovely. I just need you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading. 
> 
> 2016 LK Fiction

**Author's Note:**

> Needs some work, I know. Thanks for taking the time to read.
> 
>  
> 
> 2015 LK Fiction


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